This is basically some sort of reworked/enhanced version of this thread from almost 10 years ago (jesus christ I'm having a terrible stomachache typing "10 years ago"). Except this is all my personal vision on the thing with a more detailed outlook on things.

This thread is more open to comments rather than suggestions, at least until it is done; I wanted to write this shit down here that I have planned for days for the sake of it (I miss writing random Unreal-related things so there you go) and who knows it might be useful in a long time future for those who want to re-create this game; it takes in account Unreal content that got cut in development and I'm here to try putting them together in the best way possible. It's just a fun thing.

It will be done in separate posts, like the trivia thread.

General things:

Few cutscenes present.

Works in an open-world kinda way. Most of the locations can't be accessed more than once but there's no proper, OUTDATED "level" system. You go around places as if it is one full blown adventure level.

Posts will come weekly, will go through one or multiple "maps" at once.

Locations ID

► Show Spoiler

Entry to Unreal

Vortex Rikers

Nyleve's Falls

Rrajigar Mine

Chizra - Nali Water God Temple

Dark Arena

Harobed Village

Terraniux

Vandora - Nali Sky Goddess Temple

The Trench

ISV-Kran

Spire Village

The Sunspire

Haven's Fortress

Gateway To Na Pali Haven

Na Pali Haven

Outpost 3J

α62

Resistance Lake

Soledad - Skaarj Breeding Lair

Jupiter

The Seeker

Acerack - Nali Fire God Temple

Tonatiuh - Ancient Proving Grounds

Morose - Temple of Jrath

Nagomi Passage

Tezcatlipoca - Secret Ancient Ruins

Nexus

Foundry Tarydium Plant

Bounds of Foundry

Valley of Eelhandra

HΔL

Nemo

Cryox

Outside Cryox

The Dissent

Triton - Sunken Nali Palace

Triton - Subterranean Lake

Velora - Underground Nali Dwellings

Velora - The Guardian's Pass

Bluff Eversmoking

Loche of the Underflow

Dasa

Serpent Canyon

Nali Castle

Demonlords' Lair

Crater 7

Skaarj Mothership

The Darkening

The Source Antechamber

The Source

Exit from Unreal

Weapons ID

► Show Spoiler

Dispersion Pistol Level 6

Automag

Minigun

Stinger

ASMD

Eightball

Flak Cannon

Razorjack

GES BioRifle

Skaarj Railgun

Quadshot

Impaler

Erebus Swarmer Missile Launcher

AVRiL Turret

Items ID

► Show Spoiler

Kevlar Suit

Assault Vest

Shield Belt

Power Shield

Dispersion Pistol Power Up

Clips

Bullet Box

Tarydium Shards

ASMD Core

Eightballs

Flak Shell

Flak Box

Razorpack

Tarydium Sludge

Rifle Round

Rifle Ammo Box

Shell Box

Universal Translator

Flashlight

Searchlight

Seed

Force Field

Invisibility

Acoustic Dampener

Toxin Shield

Tonatiuh's Boots

Anti-Grav Boots

SCUBA Gear

VoiceBox

Amplifier

Peacemaker

Artifact

Relic

Bandages

Health Pack

Nali Fruit

Super Health

Pawns ID

► Show Spoiler

P849

Terran

Skaarj Scout

Skaarj Warrior

Skaarj Assassin

Skaarj Hunter

Skaarj Lord

Skaarj Berserker

Power Test Lv.Orange Berserker

Power Test Lv.Green Lord

Power Test Lv.Blue Lord

Skaarj Trooper

Skaarj Infantry

Skaarj Gunner

Skaarj Sniper

Skaarj Officer

Power Test Lv.Green Officer

Mercenary

Mercenary Elite

Alfa Merc

Alfa Merc Elite

Krall

Krall Elite

Kraal

Kraal Master

Minotaur

Lesser Brute

Brute

Behemoth

Slith

Fire Slith

Tarydium Slith

Gasbag

Giant Gasbag

Pupae

Brood

Manta

Cave Manta

Giant Manta

Nali

Nali Priest

Nali Ghost

Nali Monk

Nali Cow

Nali Baby Cow

Nali Rabbit

Fish

Bird

Horseflies

Chameleon

Fly

Blob

Shian

Devilfish

Stingray

Kraken

Predator

Spinner

Tentacle

Skaarj Hawk

Strider

Turret Ξ

Turret Π

Cyborg

Drakk

Titan

Tonatiuh's Titan

Vandora's Titan

Dasa's Titan

Stone Titan

Skaarj Fighter

Cryox Commander

Droth

Skaarj Falcon

The Rogue

Skaarj Warlord

Skaarj Queen

Songs ID

► Show Spoiler

Long Flight (FlyBy.umx)

Commencement (Orch.umx)

Nightmares (Vortex.umx)

Dusk Horizon (Dusk.umx)

Shared Dig (DigSh.umx)

Flooded Grottoes (Chizra.umx)

Watcher of the Skies (Chizrash.umx)

Nali Chant (Nali.umx)

Lonely Abbey (Hub2.umx)

Night Vision (K_vision.umx)

Secret Base (Fourth.umx)

Unreal Crypt (UTemple.umx)

Lethal Chasm (Fifth.umx)

High Tension (Newmca9.umx)

Valley of the Spires (Hub3.umx)

Floating Fortress (SkyCity.umx)

Surfacing (Surface.umx)

All Hallows Sunset (SkyTown.umx)

Isotoxin (Isotoxin.umx)

Starship One (StarOne.umx)

Red Blossom (Blossom.umx)

Solitude (Soledad.umx)

ALF (Opal2017.umx)

The Star Seeker (Starseeker.umx)

Dark Presence (Cyrene.umx)

The Strength (Magnus.umx)

False Deity (SETI.umx)

Battle Frenzy (Newmca16.umx)

Unreal Suspense (Suspense.umx)

Droth's Lair (Newmca12.umx)

Circuitry (Foundry.umx)

Black Wind (Boundary.umx)

The Walking (Gala.umx)

Shock Troops (Dirt.umx)

Solitary Silhouette (UnrCirc.umx)

Deep Chill (Inoxx.umx)

Desert Sunset (Sacred.umx)

Infiltration (Morose.umx)

Jump In The Void (Mountain.umx)

Secret Area (Newmca2.umx)

Guardian of Stone (Guardian.umx)

The Monastery (Newmca13.umx)

Below The World (Underworld.umx)

Mountain Fortress (Newmca7.umx)

War Gate (WarGate.umx)

Fragmented (WarLord.umx)

Red Alert (Crater.umx)

Erosion (Unreal4.umx)

Illusions (EndEx.umx)

Queen Of Death (QueenSong.umx)

Altered Atmosphere (UnrealEnd.umx)

Unreal Euro Dance Mix (UEuro.umx)

Dream of Na Pali (Dreams.umx)

Last edited by UBerserker on 11 Jul 2017, 00:37, edited 53 times in total.

Entry to UnrealMUSIC: Orch.umx (based on Orchtest.umx or the RTNP ending theme)The mysterious Entry prison mini-map will be expanded and used as some sort of introduction scripted sequence, which is typical of today's games now. You can only walk around the cell for a bit, then you will be taken throughout the prison complex by UMS Marines, getting eventually into a landed Vortex Rikers ready to take off (the prison complex is in some Terran-conquered planet; you don't get to see much aside a very beautiful space-y sky for a brief amount of time).

During the cutscene where the marines take you to the Rikers, you'll get to know why your character is a prisoner and why he/she is (no forced gender here!) being sent to a moon prison to be sentenced to death. For the record, P849's crime has never been made official but the most legit one comes from the novel and also from the ISV-KRAN level description (tldr: was commissioned by somebody to hack in one Inuit's computers to steal plans for a mysterious military warship, in change of money. P849 had to kill guards during this operation but was eventually captured). The Vortex Rikers takes off to this moon as seen in a cutscene.

You regain the control of P849 (walking only) inside the infamous Rikers cell, locked with a purple forcefield (which was a thing in early versions of the map for some of the cells); after a minute or so of hearing the guards and nearby prisoners, shit happens and alarm goes on - the pilots have lost control of the Vortex Rikers and it's crashing onto a planet. Situation easy to imagine.

Not a brief intro but pretty minimalistic in terms of things being shown and said. Think of it a bit like Souls games - you don't need much else to know. The proper next, full-blown cutscene won't happen until after 20+ maps, after the Sky Islands; anything else is more of a spectacular (or not) event that you watch for yourself when you control your character.

Vortex RikersMUSIC: Vortex.umx (2nd section is much louder)The upper bed of your cell fell upon you during the crash, knocking you over; you wake up struggling to get that thing out of the way.

The map will generally act the same as it did, except for the fact that instead of random explosions, various things will just break down as you go around - causing of course explosions if it is a falling lamp or something blowing up a computer, or a malfunctioning door. The ship has crashed for long now; I never understood why in Vortex you'd see explosions all over the place - was the ship blowing up? Didn't make much sense.The small locked door in the prison area appears to be slightly semi-open and for a half second you can see something passing behind it (the Skaarj). The torture room is LOCKED now.You must still go through the vent shaft; the other end is closed with a gate but P849 can easily punch it down automatically.

The Kevlar Suit forcefield button is now located on the floor rather than on the ceiling because emergency things MUST not be to be counter-intuitive for people. The MedLab has enough health to fill yours to 100.

The Skaarj scene acts in the same way, though when the door opens up you'll see the Skaarj gruesomely ripping in half one of the bodies, spraying blood and organs all over (this is an answer to the unexplained "gibbing" you see when the door opens up). The DP will be picked in a more scripted fashion: you'll realistically crawl and pick it up rapidly when you approach the group of the other dead bodies. The Skaarj will escape a bit slower here but he'll easily manage to dodge any DP bolt. If you are fast enough chasing him, you will see him breaking the door to the hangar room (just like how it is in-game) but he will escape toward the direction of the bridge area, NOT to the emergency exit (technically, that didn't happen in the original game too - did he really go in the direction of the bridge area?).

Now you can exit the map in the same typical way, or you can actually go back to the bridge area throughout that unused mini corridor (you know it) that connects the hangar to it; the doors are unlocked from there. As you go back to the bridge, you see the Skaarj throwing at you the large iron bar that blocked the crew berth entrance (the other unused area) and that can damage you. You can chase him in this new area but he'll be too fast now and he'll permanently flee.

This crew berth section leads you to a new set of areas (most of it is destroyed) that contains the Rikers' engine room, never seen anywhere in the original one (there were some areas that led to other exits in one version of the map though). Here you find some items - clips, voicebox and forcefield - and a way to climb up to the top of the ship. This is an alternate exit from the Vortex to Nyleve which is permanent once you drop down from the ship itself, as you can't climb above anymore and therefore unable to return inside. This area will also lead you back to the prison area, throughout that door on the second floor: you can force-open it from behind with some emergency controls; from there you can also unlock the torture chamber which just has the same event, except in a more spectacular way. It will grant you a bonus achievement, lol.

Nyleve's music will start as you exit from the ship's ceiling but it will turn off you go back to the Rikers.

The emergency exit works in the same exact way but going for it will permanently skip the optional new way out.

Nyleve's FallsMUSIC: Dusk.umxThe emergency exit will be like how it was in the 1998 beta - a straight, rising corridor (just a bit longer this time for the scenery buildup) that comes straight from the Rikers' back side. So you'll face the direction of the falls and with it the far mountains, the sky, the sunspire in the distance, probably some other shit in the sky distance like an industrial complex, some sight of a sky island, a much larger fall, palms/trees over the mountains like how Nyleve originally had them, etc...Basically this would be the strongest graphical showcase of the game in an era where games are dominated by this now, which is not an easy feat - considering Nyleve was pretty much known to be the visual dominator back in the day, there's a lot to do here to make it shine in a similar way in the 2017 era. You have two suns here! And a weird planet atmosphere, where two suns don't burn things alive and when the sky still appears to be quite dark greenish. Yeah, you have a lot of source material here.This is still around a gray chain mountain, not everything has to be a fucking green jungle. It's an alien planet, which means a lot of liberties can be taken when designing the environment style. The background scenery should at least foreshadow important locations of the game.

Getting yourself out of the Rikers, be it from the top or the bottom, will bring a temporary bloom effect to your eyes because of the high brightness (two suns) with some accompanying loud sound like Call4. The Vortex is much larger here, and it's found way closer to the edge of the fall.Another foreshadow: going to the direction of the Biterfish pool (biterfish here will be vast, harmless fish schools who will be afraid of anything) will trigger a huge thunder far in the sky and with it the Call8 Queen sound. Right there you will see in the far lands an unnatural storm - the position where the Mothership is located. This should at least address the reason why you hear the Call8 sound near that fish pool in the original game.

Regarding the lake down the fall... it's a river now. Both its extremities will now end with long waterfalls, to unseen parts of the canyon (think of like large mountain openings). Of course it's a long fall so you die if you jump out from either side, and the water's strong current, which was in the original game, now finally makes sense.

The Warlord scene will NOT get in; instead this time the Warlord will be briefly seen hanging in the background mountains (above the big waterfall), surrounded by a black smoke. He'll then teleport away.

When going through Nyleve, and also Rrajigar and Chizra, you'll hear sounds but the one you'll hear the most is the Manta's Call sound (forgot the number, 1 I believe?). It will play sometimes at very high volume and also when you are indoor.

The level at its core will be the same, except it will include the discarded Hub sections from the 1998 beta version of Nyleve, which will be in full use here. Check those sections from my UBeta walkthrough as I'm assuming you are already aware of those.The way to Sacred Passage is at first locked - there's no electric power in the Nyleve's external Rrajigar bunker aside from some lights turned on. The elevator to the Dark Arena also doesn't work, of course. The power switch is in the final large area of Rrajigar, so overall you'll still be forced to go through the mine first.

Regarding the enemies:

The Manta will fight in the same way, enjoying circling more around its prey. This time its attack isn't anymore contact-based but instead animation-based like almost all other enemies in the game. Manta will fly faster and in a straight direction when doing the tail attack, losing a bit of height as well.

Tentacles' projectiles will damage less but will be faster and will have a 3-seconds poison effect on you, dealing 1 hp of damage per second (ignoring any armor except for the ShieldBelt) plus a movement slow. If they are right near you (below you and not too far) they'll go full HL's Barnacle mode, very quickly. Not very damaging and you can still kill the Tentacles in time.

Lesser Brutes will walk faster when they aren't shooting. They will also have a special firemode where they load up to shoot four homing rockets, requiring cover most of the time to dodge them. They can also shoulder smash for stunning targets up-close. The berserk mode (that's triggered when their health is low, like usual) will have a bull-style charged shoulder smash; this one, when used against light targets, will send them flying away for a few meters, making them fully vulnerable to the Lesser Brute's rockets.

Entering Rrajigar works in the same exact way, except this time you can exit from it anytime to return in Nyleve (not exactly pointless as Nali Fruits will keep growing from vegetation decorations instead of being pickups).

Rrajigar MineMUSIC: SharedDig.umx (songsections will be used like in the released game)It's two levels combined into one, you can go back to Nyleve any time, the caves (including the secret ones) will be slightly larger, the lava is insta-kill (therefore all those escape ways are gone) and all those game-y level design decisions that wouldn't make any sense in a real place (the moving bridges, that whole moving cart section at the beginning of Map 4, the large fans dragging you in, being forced to use a crate elevator to climb to the second floor - you get it, there are too many to list) getting the fuck out of there, replaced with anything that would make any normal human capable of going from the beginning to the exit of the whole Rrajigar Mine with zero trouble. This is going to be true for pretty much any map, especially Cliff's ones.

The voicebox cannot be found here, you would get it in the Vortex instead as mentioned in the post above. It's going to be an enemy-luring item that can be used for an infinite amount of times (you can pick it up again after use), however enemies will eventually destroy it if they stare at it for too long; some of them will outright shoot or crush it.

The Skaarj debut scene is a bit more dramatic. The noise of lights shutting down will be much louder, the passage locks will now have a second bar on top of the first one. The Skaarj can now appear from any direction regardless of when you saved the game.

Skaarj types will be more distinct this time in terms of fighting skills. Skaarj Scouts are the weakest ones but still obscenely strong early game (you'll encounter much less this time around in Rrajigar and Chizra). Warriors can now wall jump (can also wall run) for additional dodges or wall jumping just to dive onto you with a melee attack. They can also shoot you while in air or during dodging. Much more movement freedom, much less combat predictability!

A special interaction command will force Nali to teleport away (they won't if they want you to bring you somewhere), and they'll do it really fast. Interact with every Nali. Save all of them. Achievement.This interaction button is the enhanced version of the "Grab" one that's been in Unreal. Buttons/Levers are activated with this command (but an old-school style option is a thing). Almost every elevator in Rrajigar (and for the rest of the game) now has a panel which requires manual activation. It's always a very fast process though.

A recap of all the Nali events in this map:

The Stinger one is essential for getting the weapon as it isn't found anywhere until Dark Arena. The ammo for it is still around though.

The DP Power-Up one is made less annoying. No more explosive barrels, which means less chances for the Nali to die.

The Nali conveyor belt secret now works differently. No more those "conveyor belt tunnel" doors that lead to just brick walls (that makes no sense) but instead the Nali will move around the cartwheels in a way so the player can climb on the upper floor of the room (unused in the original version but seemed always quite spacey for being useless) and get items there (the same ones as before).

The broken wall path that connects Rrajigar Mine with the Depth one (like in the beta: where there's that Skaarj working on a panel in the second map and you can blow the explosive barrel next to him) is retained.The little room before the lava cave won't be accessed anymore through a small pit, there's now a staircase. Same with the nearby Tarydium cave, you can now activate an elevator from the upper floor to go down or up.The falling wooden bridges in the lava cave will hardly break - only one plank or two will fall.The fan area, that isn't hazardous anymore, leads to a much better looking security room. It will open the way to the second part of the Rrajigar like before but it will also unlock some shortcuts in the first part of the mining complex (like that door behind the first Nali you encounter that in the original game it unlocks without any explanation - now you do it manually there late in the map).

The Brute's armor is now effectively an armor and not a visual skin only. Aim for the head or any exposed part - otherwise bullets will do hardly any damage, including explosive stuff as well (they are made to resist explosion damage, just like in the original game). They don't fight any differently from the Lesser ones, except stronger melee damage and higher health.

Some notes regarding the weapons. Each one comes with a special "tertiary" feature:

Dispersion Pistol's recharge rate is very fast now and the projectiles have a 15% damage boost per every upgrade; bolts will be however slower. The special firemode is a rainbow plasma bolt which consumes all the DP's ammo: charge the secondary fire like normal but also hold the primary fire, and the DP will have a white-colored charge-up. If the charge-up is discontinued, nothing happens; the charge-up will work like the secondary fire and takes a lot of time until the super bolt is shot (it will also be shot instantly when the charge is completed like always). Bolt is extremely damaging with a vast splash damage, able to outright kill the player if he's too close to the explosion. It can however one-shot just about any normal enemy, provided you're able to hit them as the bolts go really slow. The ammo recharge rate after this super shot will be also temporarily nerfed. Amplifier doesn't work with the DP anymore.

Automag deals 13 hp per hit now instead of 17 and can carry 300 ammo. Dual Automag is now a thing though! - and that's the special tertiary feature of the gun. The ammo is shared between mags (150 each); compared to one Automag, your ROF increases but the accuracy decreases. This isn't all however - won't say what now though.

Stinger works the same but it gains a new feature that's very similar to Halo's Needler: shoot a lot of crystals on an enemy (their presence will linger on the victim's body for 2 seconds or so) and they will react causing internal body explosions, aka bonus damage. Player will be unaffected by the explosions. Stinger's secondary fire is a great way to ramp up crystals on a body and crystals between bodies will also react together, causing bigger chain explosions. It works on anything organic, even dead bodies. The explosion extra damage is based on the starting HP of the enemy: higher the HP is, stronger the explosion damage will be. This makes the weapon at least useful for the whole game.

ASMD Shock Rifle has no technical changes but will do slightly less damage across the board (combo will have the "black hole" fatality effect on killed enemies like seen in UT3 and UT4). The Amplifier will only work with it, use of it encouraged due to the ASMD's nerfed damage: the primary fire will pierce anything and will set the target on fire (fire debuff will stack per every shot); the secondary fire on impact will be such a devastating flaming bomb of orange energy. Let alone the amplified combo (which will take half Amplifier energy). The ASMD is the only weapon that cannot be used underwater.

The ASMD secret in Rrajigar is still there but replaced by some sort of locked tank full of Tarydium inside. Its door requires an Eightball rocket to be blasted off - so you need to go through Chizra first and then return to Rrajigar. The weapon will be there alongside one core (that's all what you find ASMD-wise in Rrajigar) and if you miss them you'll have to wait until Harobed to get one, as it is not found in Chizra either (at a certain point of the game you cannot return anymore to Nyleve's HUB).

The last Rrajigar area, looking as good as ever, has some changes. The underwater secret is now an actual water tank on the floor; you can't break the bridge anymore but if you return here with the Eightball you can destroy the tank door with a rocket: there's a SuperHealth hidden inside. These health items will be extremely rare and will now instantly replenish up to 500 hp.

The gas tanks (now much larger) are now put inside a special room in the same location. You still have to turn the valves to blow them up, causing gas leaks all over the place in Rrajigar and putting it temporarily out of commission for mining (causing also even more earthquakes, I'm assuming the mine sits in a volcanic area). This will make overall a bit more dangerous a return to the mines after Chizra when you have to get the ASMD and SuperHealth secrets.After the gas tank event, the Rrajigar's final security guardpost in the final area will open like in the original game and from there you can turn on to the max the electric power in Nyleve, so you can access Sacred Passage and therefore Chizra.

Back to Nyleve. The Skaarj mining bunker/outpost you're in will now have its lights turned on. The elevator to Dark Arena actually works; this time the way to Dark Arena, compared to the beta version, is much longer and goes to a different direction - not toward Sacred Passage but actually around the mountains above Rrajigar mine. In Unreal, based on the locations seen in the skybox from Nyleve, you go in a clockwise direction. It's a long path filled of medieval-style ruins until you reach the white, currently locked doors that mark the entrance to Dark Arena (including a massive gateway/wall of sort straight out of a Souls game); the sky & lighting will also become more gray/white as you come close to the doors, viceversa if you go away.

Sacred Passage is the same, except the walls of the passage itself seem more old, have a more Mayan-feel to them and they're taller. Overall most of the ancient locations and the landed ship will look much more grand and imposing than before.

No Skaarj Warrior yet here. Instead you'll face the first Devilfish in the pool. With water visibility being nerfed for player characters, it's quite hard to see things. Instead of simple bites, Devilfish will leech on a part of your body and will damage you relentlessly until they are killed. You'll swim much slower when you are under attack; multiple Devilfish can attack you simultaneously, boosting up damage dealt and lowering down the player's movement speed even more. They are still fragile however, and weapon efficiency in water doesn't change (exact same as in Unreal/UT, exception being the ASMD immediately switched out when you are underwater).

The optional pool chamber of Sacred Passage is not accessible at the moment.

Once opened, the door to Chizra won't close. However it doesn't matter at the end of the day because after the first area of Chizra, you drop down that hole and you can't climb back up anymore.

Chizra - Nali Water God TempleMUSIC: Chizra.umx (no SETI.umx), Chizrash.umx (aka Watcher.umx with its beta name)Chizra and Ceremony back together as just Chizra. The temple will be more of an indoor visual show with a lot of vegetation and post-midday sunlight, and the water will also "magically" shine (giving a bigger emphasis on the magical aspects of the game, which were very inconsistent and rare in the original version). Shining water will also flow through bricks in the more important areas.

The main gimmick will be overall saving all the Nali within the temple. There are fewer of them this time around but they're still in danger, especially due to Slith that will attack them on sight.

Slith will now "puke" acidic saliva instead of shooting slime orbs. The acid puke travels very fast (almost insta-hit) but they need to get close to their targets. Slith can accelerate their movements at times (timed sprints) and can "slide-slith" too. They can sprint with melee attacks too, making them more aggressive.In water they are insane. Their swim speed is doubled compared to the players', and can tear down anybody in seconds with melee attacks, way more effectively than they did in Unreal. However they cannot spit acid underwater. Their immunity to acid remains. Overall they are much more dangerous and you have to consider there's no ASMD in your hands yet and that you might have missed the Stinger in Rrajigar. However you have a stronger DP and more Automag ammo.

Progression on the map doesn't change in any way or form. Some vital changes as follows:

The pool with the platform on the middle of it that has the pillar button to open the next corridor, right after you encounter the first Slith - no more tiny bridge connecting to it. Just swim to the pillar.

The two-rooms large area with all the wooden bridges - the buttons on the torch pillars are much more visible.

The water cylinder cell thing in the room accessed from the area with the moving platform is now replaced with some sort of glowing stone, with water flowing in it. If you get the Eightball and shoot a rocket at it, it will break and the secret to the mirror room will be permanently opened.

If you are inside the mirror room the music will temporarily stop and you hear a constant high-pitched whistle and the colors will lose saturation. You need to look yourself in the mirror.

The Pool of Thunder's lightning effect will work just once (now with a big flash) and it will slowly restore your health to 200. The Skaarj Scout still ambushes you, lol.

The wooden bars destroyed by the magic lightning strikes in the Pyramid room are now replaced with some sort of wide stone seal (lightning blast show for just a bunch of wooden bars is dumb).

The portal room is re-designed. You'll have it face to face immediately and the surroundings will be more mystic in nature.

The passage to the Ceremony side has a visual explanation on why it opens. When you pick up the Eightball on the pillar (scripted event / mini-cutscene) you will notice it was sticking in its floor, in a hole of the same shape - holding a mechanism that locked said passage. Nali did this probably to lock as much as possible Skaarj from going between temple sides and to force their messiah to help them in the temple part. And if Skaarj did figure out the trick, they would have still left the weapon on the pillar in order to slow down P849. This Eightball holds 24 rockets.

Eightball still has forced center-view. The weapon has a more modernized look and will now have a mini-panel which tells you if the charging rockets are in spread mode or unified mode. The grenades also have two special charge-up modes (press primary fire to switch them while holding the secondary fire, like the opposite of how you do it with spread/unified rockets); the alternate mode for the secondary fire is grenades exploding on impact instead of bouncing.The weapon's panel will also show a countdown for the lock-on rocket feature, which is now silent. Rockets and grenades have this special feature here where they can break certain doors or items, something reserved for SECRETS ONLY (I don't want to give headaches by forcing people to shoot rockets into things in order to proceed, that sucks).

The Fly group encounter is still there. Their AI is the exact same and they'll be also capable of shooting their tail needle. Works like the Tentacle's projectiles with the same poison effect, except the Fly's ones are faster and more accurate. Downside is that they can only shoot one needle max. They can also shoot while on ground. Lastly, they move around faster and more erratically.

Regarding the Ceremony side (music is still the same), the lava chamber is gone and replaced with a brick wall like in the beta (that lava room was never supposed to be in Ceremony). The Nali in the spire room will be placed in a more sensible spot and he'll be guarding a Seed this time. Seeds are stronger here because they will create a huge plant, and this plant will be able to grow an infinite amount of fruits at a moderate speed. And it will last forever, until to the point you can't return to the place where you used the Seed in.

The water pools in the Ceremony's pillar rooms do not heal anymore. Nali can also slowly swim.The SCUBA Gear is located next to a dead body found in the canyon part, underwater (killed by a Slith). The SCUBA Gear will work like the RTNP's one, so it's infinite. Of course you will find other ones during the game but they will be of no use as long as you have already one.Regarding drowning damage, just like in the original Unreal it will ignore any armor and will deal 2 HP per half second. Shield Belt will however block drowning damage regardless if you have a SCUBA Gear or not, and it will also increase your underwater visibility (the shield blocks water, duh).

A resume of the three main armor items:

Kevlar Suit will give resistance to fall damage. Falling from a certain height won't slow you and won't shake the screen when you touch ground.

Shield Belt will make you impervious to poison damage (unless the poisoned strike destroyed the shield), will give extra visibility underwater and won't make you drown.

When you approach the outdoor canyon part, you may be able to notice for a half-second a flying black figure in the sky, followed by a loud wind noise.

Ceremony will end like usual; the level design of the last cave will be played around the geography of the location so the exit is closer to Nyleve. At the end of the boat ride you'll reach a bunch of small ancient tunnels that will lead you straight to the Sacred Passage's pool chamber (similar to how it was done in the beta, except that was more of a secret) and therefore back to Nyleve (the generator area in Nyleve's mining bunker doesn't have a second floor anymore to make space for the Dark Arena pathway).

With the Eightball in your hands (Ceremony side comes with a lot of ammo, hard to run out of it) you can go back to Rrajigar and get the ASMD and SuperHealth secrets (your last chance). Otherwise you'll be heading to Dark Arena. You notice a seal on the large doors that can be opened by sticking the Eightball in it and turning the thing around (scripted event here where all the rockets are unloaded and the player char will trigger the Eightball like it's charging rockets, so the cans will turn around) - same seal shape seen in the Chizra temple when you picked up the weapon, so perhaps the Nali might have accidentally considered the weapon to be a sacred artifact instead of the real, unseen one. Giving more sense to the story, overall.These large doors will not stay open for long, and cannot be opened from behind - this is a point of no return!

You will enter some sort of large ruined courtyard, slightly based on the theme of Dark Arena. On the opposite side, another set of large doors closed with the same Eightball seal. Approach it and...

...Something seems to appear. The flying black figure that you might have seen in Chizra's skies, and the one behind all the loud Manta call sounds heard since Nyleve: a Giant Manta. A very dark-skinned, bloodshot-eyed one with a rough and pointy body, and appears to be pretty aggressive. He'll have a quick and very impactful scripted introduction and the battle begins, Chizrash/Watcher playing in the background for the fight. Visibility is lowered due to strong winds.

The Giant Manta will have a unique moveset. His flight skills are special in the sense that he moves fast and can fidget himself around to dodge projectiles (ESPECIALLY ROCKETS) like if its body is made of paper. With the very windy weather going on and the boss flapping its large wings like crazy, the player character's ground speed will be lowered, and it will keep lowering more as you damage the boss. Your main way to dodge attacks is through jumping or dodging, somehow unaffected by the slow debuff. The Giant Manta has several types of tail strikes, some of them obvious and some of them done through tricky animations (like one moment he begins flying up only for the Manta to suddenly flapping its tail onto you). Tail damage is extremely high, on the highest difficulty one or two hits are enough to kill you (you need a lot of armor to survive one strike). The tail attacks will also interact with the surrounding, destroying anything it strikes. Heavy debris may damage you a bit. Another attack, always preceded by a longer Manta call sound, has the boss flying right onto you. Crawl to dodge.The Giant Manta has a special "fatality" if it kills you with an impale-type tail strike.

As the boss can easily dodge rockets, grenades exploding-on-impact may be very good if you're able to hit it. Hitscan weapons are the safer options. The boss has a HP bar and when it dies it will die like any normal enemy and the music stops. No scripted event, just the winds calming down.

Only thing you can do now is enter Dark Arena. The Nyleve HUB is over.

I'd love comments! Foreshadowing is my game.

Last edited by UBerserker on 10 Jul 2017, 10:10, edited 4 times in total.

Dark ArenaMUSIC: Nali.umxThe climax of the first part of the game. The entrance is just the same (like in the beta it will only be the two staircases beyond the doors) and once you get out of the tunnel you are greeted with the Dark Arena's valley and the fortress - after an event where tick fog fades away. The environment around is heavily barren, gray, like if completely burned. The mountains also feel very unnatural, with stone-y textures and irregular shapes. The atmosphere is generally bright gray due to the skybox being very cloudy (basically like how it is in the original game in the "wrong" way - there are two suns in the sky, therefore the lighting in the clouds will still be of a very bright gray/white). Overall it'd feel like some old-school medieval setting out of a classic FPS game. We call this theme "oldschool badass dreaded valley". Few green-glowing palms can still be seen over the mountains, alongside occasional crucified/impaled bodies (Nali or human, or also skeletons).

When the fog goes away, OldNali plays (a 1998 UBeta song, which is Nali.umx's entire vocal sample played at the beginning of the song) and then the regular Dark Arena theme starts. OldNali will be heard just once and never more - and it's also a songsection of Nali.umx, not a separate song anymore.

Introducing here something that I didn't before: upon entering each "level" or location for the first time will show on the upper center of the screen the name of the place and some sort of lore text (an upgrade to the level enter text), alongside some sound. Think of how the current open-world games like Fallout do, same thing. Smaller location text name (without the lore text and with a silent sound) will pop up upon place revisit instead.

The fortress will look much more bulky, something on the lines of "I don't wanna go there". Visual details are the first order.The fortress' entrance is different, and once again you can't access it at first, forcing you to take the prison passageway. It'll be a single, huge door set in the center of the wall. The hall itself will have the staircases positioned on both sides - no more that upper floor walkway going throughout the chamber and no more that elevator. Right on the wall in front of the entrance there's another huge set of doors that leads directly to the arena. This will fix the fact that the original Dark Arena's arena had no real way in for large creatures - how the fuck did the Titan get in otherwise? It will be a pretty grand entrance overall.The entrance easter egg is also removed and so the crucified Nali.When you try to get in front of the main entrance, you'll hear one or two human screams from inside the fortress, plus some small earth shocks and loud stomps. This event cannot be missed.

Outside the fortress there's once again that piece of land with three crucifixes and an Assault Vest, guarded by what will be the first Skaarj Warrior in the game.Skaarj Warriors this time will be red-eyed and will have a brown skin (they will look like this almost https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntLI6uxQJNw&t=1828s). This is for consistence purposes with the rest of the Warrior caste that's all brown AND not green. Having actually less health than the Scouts, they'll have different AI properties; they'll prefer to stay away and shoot you in fights instead of pushing onto you for melee attacks. They'll use cover much more often and will run backwards if things go bad. Skaarj Warriors shoot very fast (even faster than any other Warrior-type Skaarj), including a unique animation where they shoot projs one by one like if they're shooting with two handguns gangsta-style (they can do it even by walking slowly) and lastly they are able to shoot charged bolts that have splash damage (think of the UBeta DP version). Melee attacks are as fast as the Scout's ones but deal a bit less damage; they will suddenly opt for them when they are cornered.

The prison access is the same. The location will be probably a bit more gruesome, more blood around and some gibs at least - definitely more in the cells. You won't hear any human scream (they're all dead, duh) but you'll hear few Titan growls along the way.The human captives in Dark Arena have been taken to the location by Skaarj from Nyleve. Some managed to escape to Harobed.

The elevator shortcut that goes straight to the arena is still there and can now be operated on the destination floor too, not just only below. You permanently skip a lot of items this way - and after the Titan fight you'll be unable to go back exploring the fortress, while the "regular" way will make that possible. Your choice. It's legit for Coop games at least (that passage was made mostly for coop players anyway) and Coop players may still take this way to the arena if the Titan fight has already started.By the way, this passage will now have lava instead of water below the circular walkway.

The room to open all the cells will have a Stinger and some ammo; if you missed the weapon in Rrajigar this is your second easy chance.About every fortress room will get a facelift of sort, mostly due to the original map (and Jeremy War's stuff in general) being very low-poly.

The chamber with the cages is closed for now.

The re-designed fortress hall has a lever to permanently open the main doors to the structure. The doors to the arena are of course closed. The Skaarj from the upper floor will ambush you once you reach the middle of the room - this will be the first time you will have to deal with two Skaarj (Scouts) simultaneously with their massively improved AI. This is where the Stinger's explosive chain reaction feature may shine - or you can just go full yolo with the Eightball.

That door on the left hand side of the fortress hall, locked in Unreal 1 and leading to what seems to be an unfinished area, can now be blown up by a rocket. Inside there's just another staircase room like the one on the other side but of course you go down (more than the other). You'll end up in the torture chamber with the cages! This time there's an item at least: a Kevlar Suit.In a surprising turns of the event the door of the cage chamber that leads to the prison remains locked.

The way to open the arena is the same, except it will also now open the main arena doors in the hall. You can go from here or drop from the balconies - the three doors on the upper floor actually lead to just spectator's balconies; the upper circular walkway is gone and so its guarding Skaarj.From the balconies however you can jump on the top of the arena's pillar; the pillar's own mover is now already on the top so this is your only way to go. On top of the pillar there are just a lot of ammo and a Shield Belt.The arena itself looks more abandoned and creepy, mostly for the fact that there's an actual roof now! There's a crack on it though where a bit of light is able to pass through; the rest of the arena is illuminated by ground torches and the ground is full of broken stones and bones.

The Titan boss battle starts once you pick up the Eightball, and the main arena doors close down. The event begins with an already ongoing chant sound becoming louder and louder; you'll then hear the growl of the Titan, some mini-quakes, and finally the boss will come from one of the two side doors (the one that leads to the exit is a different kind of door and it's bulkier compared to the other two) by breaking them apart violently. Battle music STARTS and the HP bar appears! The battle music is going to probably sound different, probably more orchestral, slower and heavier and with more emphasis on the chants.

Titan looks at you very aggressively. You notice on him a shining iron armor (like the one the normal Titans in Unreal have but only few particular Titans will have it in this version). While it hardly covers the entire body, it will completely resists to anything except explosive stuff like the ASDM's secondary fire and the Eightball's ammo; grenades will also bounce off it, so be sure to use the explosive variants. His torso and face are the most exposed body parts, so the main strat is unloading all your projectiles on them (preferably grenades as they are the most damaging tools in your current arsenal). This Titan is bigger and faster than the regular ones; he can change direction quickly and can play around the main pillar. If you try to hide behind the pillar for more than a few seconds, the Titan will go quickly for a special blow on you. No more AI exploiting. You also need to stay away from him instead of escaping toward his direction - the Titan will retaliate immediately with a quick strike.

The counter strikes aren't lethal (they deal damage as much as Titans' melee did in the original Unreal) but his regular melee strikes are almost insta-kill. If you have a full set of armor (kevlar+vest+shield) you will survive.Stone throwing is the same for the most part, the Titan can now use both arms to do this action. Stone throwing speed is not always the same and sometimes the Titan will carry reserve stones; he can double throw with the same arm or with both arms, one after another. He'll definitely throw stones more angrily if you constantly hide behind the pillar (on the opposite side of where the Titan is); not a good idea because the Titan may act very randomly.Any thrown boulder is instakill. Single ones do not break on impact, so no fear of dangerous bouncing debris; multiple thrown smaller boulders travel way slower but will create a lot of debris on impact. These do not damage that much. Also, you do not want to stay inside the room where the Titan was waiting (one of the two, the other door doesn't open). Like you can enter it for a while to hide from boulders but the Titan will rush in and will DESTROY YOU with a fatality-style scene.

Titan has of course additional attacks. He isn't going to be an insta-kill filed attacks guy - you have more to dodge:

A ground shockwave. The Titan will do an alternate version of his arm flexing animation and will immediately strike the ground, sending a powerful shocking wave in front of him. His armor temporarily shines more during this attack. The shockwave direction is fixed once he decides to do the attack animation (he might cancel it sometimes) so you'll have to strafe to a safer wide space at the right time - don't strafe continuously instead because the Titan will predict your direction. Deals 75 HP.

His regular earthquakes now do damage. 20 HP. They are done faster this time around so keep your eyes on the Titan. The shockwave attack works like an expanding ring until a certain radius. It's pretty instant though, so stay in the air the moment the Titan strikes the ground.

The Titan will do his chest beating animation, going in some sort of rage mode and therefore acquiring temporary movement speed. After he does this, run the FUCK AWAY. And stay on the outer perimeter of the arena, less chances for him to crush you: any melee strikes, even the counter-type ones, under this rage buff become powerful enough to kill you in one hit no matter what.

This is how the battle will pretty much go. Much more tense, something you will expect out of a Souls game boss. The fact also that the lighting is way darker and with the heavy smoke around due to the Titan's boulder/shockwave attacks, visibility will be lower.Also, the Titans will not be stunned by any attack. He may flinch after certain delays though, during his attacks, slowing him down a tiny bit. Overall though you have more restricted timing to attack him now because of the Titan's more dynamic fighting style.

However the Titan HP doesn't have to go down to zero. Once he's down to 30% of his health, the Titan does something weird.He'll let out a loud growl, blasting away whatever's nearby (torches will go off, most all the stones and skulls on the ground will fly away, you're pushed a bit away too). The Titan will then grab with his both arms the middle pillar and will take it off the ground. Crazily. The Titan, with this large pillar in his hands, will use it to break the damn roof, right where the crack is.The roof will eventually fall apart completely; bricks falling down may damage the player, who can stay on the arena's outer perimeter or under any of the three balcony in order to not get hit. The Titan will completely ignore the player during this roof breaking event but the player can still be damaged by the pillar when it's waved around.

The arena is now illuminated by the bright gray sky but the Titan will then walk in the middle of it and will scream at the sky. Suddenly, the clouds begin to fade slowly away and the two suns will shine over the valley and therefore over the arena, creating an unnatural gold illumination. The Titan's armor pieces will begin glowing to a very bright gold and his body will also become more yellow-ish. His eyes will also glow gold. What is going on? Is it magic?Unique Titan bosses in this game will receive some sort of magic aid, believed to be coming from the Nali gods. This is a decision to make the "magic" presence of Unreal much more of a thing in the game compared to the original, instead of what's just seen in Chizra/Vandora/Bluff only. The magical aids will be unique per Titan battle (the boss ones, not the regular encounters); it will also make the Titan creature much more mysterious: you either assume a god is actually acting or there's some sort of ancient alien technology at works; you never know. The god in question who is blessing the Dark Arena's Titan is the Sun one, Tonatiuh (his name appears in a cut Unreal map and the Ancient.utx package has a texture related to his image which shows a face in a golden ring - very, very similar to how the Aztec mythology deity of the same name was represented).

The Titan will become now invulnerable and will stay in the middle of the arena, waving around his pillar in order to kill you (one hit!). That iron brush thing that the pillar had (the one that had the hanged Nali) ends up destroyed after the Titan breaks the roof; if you didn't get the items on the pillar before the battle, those are gone forever too.Titans will swipe the pillar from left to right or viceversa - crawl at the right time to dodge it, if you stay crawled all the time the Titan won't be dumb enough to miss you. He'll also obviously use the pillar to crush you - be it with a downward swipe or with a forward strike. Basic dodge-able stuff. The player will instead focus on figuring out how to beat the boss now. Now below the arena there's a lava lake (remember the UBeta and the UNBIBLE's first Titan fight description?), which you might have seen in that circular walkway around the bottom floor of the arena (the Coop passage). The body shockwave that the Titan left out before grabbing the pillar took out a lot of the crap in the arena (stones/skulls), revealing some sort of large stone platform in the middle of the place. Below this platform there's a hole to the lava lake; the platform itself is attached to the nearby ground thanks to some locks and the player has to blow these locks up with explosive stuff (charged-up DP bolts are good enough), while dodging the Titan attacks.If you hide yourself in the room where the Titan was waiting all the time in, the Titan will make sure to crash the pillar onto it as strong as he can, making said room's roof crumble down. Instant death.

If that is done, the platform will fall into the lava and so the Titan, who never leaves the center of the arena. The Titan will eventually burn and die, crushed also by the big pillar that he can't hold up anymore.

Boss is dead, music ends and the unnatural sun lighting fades away - but the suns will still stay on now, as the dreaded presence of the Titan is no more. The bulky door to the exit chamber mysteriously opens up. You can go in now, or you can go back around Dark Arena (don't fall in the lava pit, lol) UNLESS you entered the arena throughout the prison passage.

In the last area you see behind the doors that lead to Harobed a Skaarj - the same Skaarj from the Vortex Rikers, recognizable by his Kevlar armor (forgot to mention this detail in the VR post). You can't catch him as the Harobed doors eventually close, and once you open them up again (the doors still stay open temporarily) the Skaarj is gone. The side doors of the room can be destroyed with rockets, revealing two small storage rooms with ammo and health. You finish Dark Arena and the first part of the game.

Welp that was long. Will continue by the weekend.

Last edited by UBerserker on 07 May 2017, 13:48, edited 1 time in total.

Harobed VillageMUSIC: Hub2.umxYou cannot go back to Dark Arena so here's to that. Harobed's music will function the same save for few mentioned changed. The first songsection will have a slight sound update, the second songsection is going to be more techno, the third songsection probably redone to sound something Unreal-ish instead of Jackrabbit-ish.

So you still fight a Skaarj Warrior every time once you access the valley. You can see part of Dark Arena's fortress and mountains from the Harobed valley, which is going to be a drastic theme change between the two places (Harobed has the classic outdoor environment theme).Terraniux in the distance is going to be much more noticeable. The greenhouses are actually opened up like in the map, the ship now has a visible body, mini-outposts over the mountain, some smoke around, falling coolant, well just about anything that lacked outside the Terraniux from the original version of Unreal. It will look imposingly scary at first glance - with a lot of colorful lights around because something has to stand out about the Mercenaries' newfound addiction to dance and technicolor lights.

The valley to it will still have appearing Mantas (this time they will actively hunt you though) and the Skaarj Scout guarding next to the coolant pool will already be there (he would spawn after getting the Armor in the church, in the original game). The Flies do not appear around there this time.The bridge to the Terraniux entrance will be seen in its entirety this time but when you will start walking on it, figures from over one of the Terraniux's exterior guardpost points will shoot rockets on it, destroying it as a result. You can't cross the pool anymore - and the pool now is really corrosive and will rapidly kill you. You need something - time to go to the village which is now no more an optional location.

Village is the same in pretty much everything, except the Flies are now already hiding around instead of the weird spawning shit that was going on in the original game. The stairs to the huts' second floors are much more climbable. There's still that Flak Shell hidden behind one of the huts.You can drop yourself in the well this time as you can crawl/jump-crawl in but I'll mention this later. Don't forget to tell the Nali in the hut to teleport away.The church's exterior part will be probably better decorated, the enclosure will look definitely MUCH BETTER (especially the entrance part) and there will be some sort of garden outside the building, with a bunch of growing Nali fruits. Trying to gather the attention of the two Skaarj Scouts from outside is essential, otherwise they'll go both killing the Nali Priest in the church. There won't be Flies around the church anymore also.The Nali inside (some priest ones will have different animations, similar to the ones of the UBeta's Nali 'cause Priests might be generally older) is now REQUIRED to open the belltower secret (in the original game you can open the secret wall by yourself); the belltower is redesigned a bit as it has now a proper bell in it. You won't get a Flak Cannon though - you will get an ASMD. If you missed it from Rrajigar, this is another chance.The Nali will also bring you, again, to the item behind the altar (much better looking, get some candles and better lighting around overall!) - a Toxin Shield. It's an item, not an armor. Upon activation you become immune to the Corrosive damage type; it works like the RTNP's SCUBA Gear, except its energy drains out faster if you're in contact with anything corrosive (additional cost is zero if you have to walk over an acid sheet instead of swimming through). Not very practical against bio attacks from Slith and BioRifle as they drain too much energy - you'll end up being damaged instead. The upside to this over the Toxin Suit is that you will never lose this kind of protection due to it being a regenerating inventory item and not an armor that can be permanently destroyed by damage.When you are inside the church, you'll hear the redone unused songsection of Hub2. Once you get out you hear the main songsection.

The cemetery receives zero sunlight and there's much more vegetation, and also fireflies. The Skaarj Scout is still there and the way you access the secret cave doesn't change. If you fell from the well, this time there's a button on the wall to open the tombstone, right in the first staircase of the secret passage. The music turns always off when you are in the cave. The place itself will look a bit cooler; less torch but now there's some Tarydium crystals bringing blue light to the place. The only major difference is that in the well there's your first Amplifier instead of the Super Health and Flak ammo. Most of it is already explained alongside the ASMD - the item doesn't work with the DP anymore but it consumes less energy overall (which is better for the ASMD which deals less damage now). The item does NOT regenerate, so you'll have to find other Amplifiers. The ASMD has a special panel on its weapon that tells you how much Amplifier energy is left.

Once you get the Amplifier, an event triggers where a Skaarj Warrior runs from Dark Arena to your location, taking the secret tombstone passage. You'll eventually face him along the way.The secret cave part is completely optional, by the way.

Back to Terraniux - the ship itself on the mountain is moved more on the right hand side and it's overall more massive (it has to match everything regarding the Terraniux's placement in Noork). No Skaarj will wait for you outside the Terraniux entrance this time (and no Mercenary dead body either) so all you have to do is enter the structure.

TerraniuxMUSIC: K_vision.umxTerraniux is all a single location this time, obviously.

Terraniux's main song theme is remastered a bit. The beginning rave part will last longer so it balances out the longer, slower portion of the song. The level begins silent though.Terraniux outright begins with the alarm corridor like in the UBeta. At the end however you'll turn right instead of left. The alarm sensor things are re-designed: the whole corridor now triggers the alarm! (and this time with sensible lighting/sound effects). In Harobed, there was a Skaarj log that told about the ASMD's ammo having EMP capabilities. The alarm system falls if you do an ASMD combo in the middle of the corridor.If you don't, the alarm triggers. Basically what it does is activating the long elevator in the next cave area already, so you have less time to prepare about the incoming battle.

Cave area just looks more detailed. You enter it from the same point as in the original Unreal but the elevator this time is called by a button next to the fucking elevator itself (assuming you did not trigger the alarm, otherwise it's already going down). Also, the corridor to the security guardpost is accessed on the left hand side - where in the original Unreal version there was that weird ass cube thing that you could pass through. It's now a door built inside the rock and leads directly to the guardpost chamber. The original path has been removed and replaced with nothing.

The elevator descent comes with a lot of cool smoke and color-changing light effects. The first Mercenary comes out of the elevator once he sees you, together with a remixed action songsection of Terraniux (it's a more aggressive glitch techno now); he also has a HP bar being the first Mercenary and one of the strongest you come across.Mercenaries in this game come off as an aggregate of alien creatures in super hi-tech bio suits that go around getting whichever powerful resource they can find and also pretending to be demi-gods because of all the many different weapons they possess and for their GOD-MODE shield and TRANCE-MODE state. Mercenaries are super versatile: they appear in different sizes, come with single or double arm-cannons or without them at all (using regular weapons but these aren't found in Terraniux), are immune to Corrosive damage thanks to their suit, their shield can even resist lava and dance like crazy, entering a temporary trance-like status that delays their deaths (if their HP is zero in this mode, they don't die yet). Each Mercenary, alongside the standard machinegun+rockets combo, is able to use a single extra additional weapon type out of many, or two if the Mercenary has double arm cannon. Each sub-weapon type is inspired by Jazz2's ones and the involved arm cannon slightly changes shape during the (very fast) weapon switch:

A gatling gun of sort. The Mercenary cannot move while using this but the weapon itself is like the post-UT2k4 Minigun's secondary fire (powerful slow single shots) at a FASTER SPEED. So strong the projectiles push you back.

Some kind of very piercing bouncing projectiles. These bounce for two times maximum (losing damage power as a result), are fast and the ROF is high. Can be shot even while moving. Powerful in small areas but can be dangerous for anyone nearby.

A "freezer". Glowing blue energy projectiles that are not very damaging but slow very down the movements of the victim, making them extremely vulnerable. Can be shot even while moving.

Two to four homing rockets shot one after another. They are the same as the Warlord's rockets (therefore damaging) but with a different, more bulkier model. You can shoot them down. Mercenary can't move while shooting this.

Close-ranged spread rockets. Shotgun x mini-rockets but explode at a certain range - which the Mercenaries know really well. A pretty fighting weapon, not very strong but cause visibility issues due to the many rockets' smoke. Mercenary can't move while shooting this.

Flamethrower. Can be shot even while moving. Causes burn damage for some seconds (unlike poison it doesn't ignore armors).

Spread blaster. Can be shot even while moving. Unlike the other weapon, this is a direct upgrade to the machinegun: other than the bullets, some sort of non-hitscan fiery projectiles are also shot. They mini-explode on impact.

Electric bolts. Can be shot even while moving. They are able to travel past various obstacles in order to hit you and have moderate damage, so basically they force you to keep moving.

Mercenaries' HP range from 100 to 450, so their size. The elevator one has 850 HP but it's unique. Mercenaries move overall slower but are now able to do simple dodge moves, except for the double-armed ones.

GOD-MODE and TRANCE-MODE are entirely separate and a Mercenary has access to only one of the two. Or just none. If a Mercenary has blue glowing thing on his chest, that's a sign he has the GOD-MODE shield; if he has some kind of red glowing helmet, he has the TRANCE-MODE status.GOD-MODE shield, while on, slows the Mercenary even more and he can't do any dodge or jump moves. They can also only use the standard machinegun in this mode, opting instead to rush onto you and punch you to death (which is pretty weak overall). GOD-MODE shield lasts 7 seconds, nothing turns it off, makes the Mercenaries super heavy so they cannot be pushed by anything.TRANCE-MODE is always turned on (does a crazy dance-like animation like if they were on drugs) when the Mercenary is close to death but it can be killed before he even does so. When this mode is on, the Mercenary will stay on its place and shoot you from there, never bothering trying to dodge anything on its way as he won't die. They will run to a better spot if they can't kill you from their current position though. TRANCE-MODE status lasts 7 seconds, gives fast movement speed but the Razorjack's blades, if used to decapitate the Mercenary, will outright kill it. During this mode their HP can still reach zero though, so after the 0 HP Mercenaries goes back to normal he's automatically dead.

Mercenaries can use their machineguns while running (just a spread fire, and the spread blaster sub-weapon won't be used for that if they have it), can properly use covers (be behind walls or crouching behind crates) and will generally act as a squad if they aren't alone, taking different cover spots or going occasionally for ganks. Sub-weapons are always random aside very few exceptions; the first Mercenary boss you fight uses the flamethrower and the freezer subweapons, as it has double arm-cannons.Mercenaries' blood is always green, due to biogenetic modifications to each creature inside the suit. They are overall as jerkass as ever but will not attack opponents outside their territory (they'll just threaten you, rare occurrence though); they will attack Skaarj on sight however. You won't ever get to know much else about them.

After the elevator Mercenary is dead, the security guardpost opens up revealing another, small Mercenary inside; kill him and the regular K_Vision songsection plays. You'll do the same bullshit here for the rest of the map - which is now extremely detailed. The Super Health secret that can be obtained during the elevator ride is still a thing, and on the upper floor you can now use a panel to go down in the beginning area again.

Note that you can go back to Harobed any time!

The last few areas of the level have three more Mercenaries. Only one of them drops a key to the "exit" room which has a pretty big control panel (instead of a fucking button) to transfer the biowaste into section B.The biowaste itself is harmless once again but it'll look just semi-disgusting or something, not going to describe, just liquid with green shit all over it. What's there to notice anyway is that Slith are NOT in Terraniux.

Lastly, from the last part of the level, you can go back to the elevator - there are now connecting pathways instead of a pit. There are also paths that take you to the outpost balconies located over the ship's entrance.

Press the final panel, look on the camera all the biowaste moving from point x to y (you can also see Mercenaries patrolling around) and it's time to part 2 of Terraniux.

Continues next post.

Last edited by UBerserker on 17 Apr 2017, 11:33, edited 1 time in total.

Yeah lol a lot of the concepts really need some rework - a lot of things in Unreal now wouldn't make any sense nowadays, they are either outdated or just have no logic now. Fairly sure on the market there isn't a FPS game that still truly plays like Unreal - an overall linear adventure-kind of game where you are completely alone versus aliens and without the gameplay being strongly arena-shooter based like the new DOOM. Souls games and Nioh are probably the closest things there are, however they aren't FPS and aren't truly linear.

...Terraniux continues->

Terraniux from there on is going to be mainly a romp against Mercenaries, of different size/hp/subweapon. No Elite ones yet. It's going to be a very tough map compared to anything else so far (and even after it for a while) due to the Mercenaries already showing their best before stronger classes of Skaarj are introduced. Mercenaries at their best are overall much stronger than the Skaarj but luckily they only appear in very few maps.For once though, Slith will still not appear in any Mercenary-related location. There's awareness on the fact that Slith are Skaarj and it doesn't make sense they'd be located in an enemy race's location.

Terraniux's progression is mainly the same but there are a bunch of changes for more logical objectives instead of just going around pushing buttons. And the command room is going to look like a fucking command room instead of some sewer guardpost. There will be several "quality of life" changes to the Terraniux's level design - including a better designed middle part of the ship above the greenhouses; balcony guardposts where Mercenaries can see what happens from high above in Harobed and Noork. You can reach there (the cylinder area in the top center of Terraniux now goes two more floors above, and the giant fan is gone), which is required for something but don't think you can drop to Noork from there (big fall, no way to exploit). The center section's top floor is a landing pad of sorts (which is empty now) and the very top of this zone looks more impressive than just a shitty cylinder - there's a massive top door. Overall Terraniux will look better, have a more realistic layout, areas feel more connected, areas have more personality and unique design, lighting being as dynamic and colorful as ever. Think of how Waffnuffly reduxed Terraniux for EXU2 to give a general idea of some layout improvements. Mercenaries are really frustrating enemies and you don't want the level design to make things worse. Also the greenhouses will look actually like greenhouses this time - the openings in the ceilings are now closed with unbreakable glass, too.Terraniux will also have navigation improvements. Most of the key locations will have some sort of mini-map panel, plus the areas themselves will be recognized by name, throughout messages and help signs. Mercenaries aren't fans of hologram technology anyway, so don't expect many non-solid computer panels.Just like in the UBeta, there will also be more biowaste pipes you can access in order to sneak through certain locations (this time without being damaged by falls).

This is a good time to talk about the Translator. The item has now its own HUD info: if you get a message, you'll receive a notice on the middle top of the screen. The graphic notice will pulse for a bunch of times and then it'll remain as a steady glowing text; just pressing the translator activation button will let you read the message in real time just like in the original game - press the button again to turn it off.Holding down the F2 button will instead open a special menu; the player character will not be controllable when this menu is open but time around will move as normal so be careful when you do this. This special menu contains all the translator logs you obtained, which can be sorted by map/location, by race and by type. Types are regular panel messages and logs. Logs come with actual voice acting (all modern games that have logs and shit come with voice acting reading them, no exception here), which can be turned off if you want; alien logs will be voiced also in normal language, with intonation and voice based on the specific alien (for sure this will be great with Krall's messages)All messages are numbered by ID but you won't get to know how many of them are still missing. Easter egg messages are no more - there will be easter eggs in different forms but these won't be mentioned in this thread because who cares. Getting all messages in the game earns you an achievement.

In Terraniux you won't get any new weapon, just one or two Amplifiers and a lot of ammo and armors; the second DP Power Up will also be found here. More than enough to keep skilled players alive against these very powerful Mercenaries. 500HP Mercs are found in biowaste sectors, command room and the center landing pad section.

Level starts with no music until you leave the first room; K_Vision's main songsection, in some cases, will now open up with its intro (which was hidden as the last songsection in the original music file).

The first part of the map in the original Unreal revolved around pressing a button in each biowaste sector - something about pumps that must be activated in order to access the elevators. That doesn't make any fucking sense.So this time what you do? You search for whoever has the activation code for both elevators: one of the Mercenaries, upon death, will drop some glowing tablet thing with a code that will be automatically inputted on all the elevators that lead to the upper part of Terraniux. It'll be one of the Mercenaries from Sector B or C (the ones with biowaste). Sounds easy enough as you could just visit one of them and be done with it but Mercenaries will get easily alerted of danger, and all of them in a portion of Terraniux will go after you until they lose your traces - they'll be using any opening and shortcut possible to chase you.Terraniux also has cameras as seen in the biowaste transfer control panel room; they are very visible as long as you notice them and rhey can be destroyed in a second. For sure you don't want to be spotted - you'll have the whole sector's Mercenaries after your ass. Considering you may want to visit all of Terraniux for items, you may as well try to do your best and kill them all the mercs now; otherwise go stealth (which works better in this game) and come back later in Terraniux when you get better tools in Noork.

The upper part of Terraniux has lots of new corridors and pathways and it's overall non-linear. Your main objective is to find a way to access the Terraniux's command room, so you can open the ship's exit door and access Noork. You're given some clues in order how to access the place: either by finding a way throughout the biowaste pipes or throughout the Terraniux's central tower. Regarding the biowaste pipes, you can access a completely new area located next to greenhouse C (the one on the leftmost side), a lab of some sort where a group of Mercenaries perform experiments on dead Skaarj and Nali bodies. You will also learn of genetic enhancements in the works for a certain Nali that's located elsewhere on Na Pali.Since you can go on the roofs of the Terraniux and various top exterior parts, you can also drop through those trap doors found in the last area of the map before the exit to Noork. These trapdoors are also located for some other areas, including the command room.In the command room you have to deal with a pretty beefy Mercenary squad (time to crank out your Eightball or an amplified ASMD combo). Once you open the passage to the exit, you'll be dealing with some Mercenaries squads along the way; you are forced to meet and fight them.

Music-wise, K_vision stops when you reach the upper part of Terraniux. Song section will be brought up when you have to deal with the Mercenaries in the command room and the first songsection will return again until all the Mercenary emergency squads are dead. The song won't play anymore afterwards, even if you leave the place and re-enter it.From the top of the Terraniux, the player can see the entirety of Harobed and lots of Dark Arena, and can also see the entirety of Noork, all the ruins of the temple of Vandora (should look really good from afar), parts of the Trench, the ISV-Kran and a closer look to the Sunspire and the Sky Islands. This will be another strong visual showcase of the game after Nyleve.The sky will also get darker as you proceed through the game, as night will eventually come. The sky system here works on the player's progress throughout an indoor location - when the player reaches a certain zone for the first time, the sky and outdoor lighting progressively changes. Coop players that are located outside might notice this (in single player this is impossible).

Accessing Noork still won't stop the player to get back as far as Harobed's beginning.

Noork's ElbowMUSIC: Fourth.umx The entry corridor to the balcony outpost is going to be a bit longer, and the outpost itself will infinitely more refined from the inside and outside (there's still an opening to see what's in the valley below). Now there's only a quite large elevator to go up and down, think of DavidM's style stuff like in StrangeWorld.One Mercenary will be still in this outpost, just about to go down. If you kill him before he takes the elevator and without alerting the Merc group below, good: the Mercs won't take notice of what happened and of what's coming out of the elevator if you're in it, as they are expecting their Mercenary friend to go down. Otherwise, if they are alerted of this battle OR if the elevator is going down a second time again (they aren't expecting anyone other than this Mercenary), they'll be prepared to shoot rockets at the elevator once you reach down in the valley with it, forcing you to do dodge some stuff once you get out of the elevator.

The outpost and the valley below are mostly used as ammo depots and as a defense line against possible Skaarj coming from Vandora. The Nali village is completely raided/destroyed (there are a bit more huts around and there are proper signs of destruction now) and no more has Tentacles and Flies (you'll find a Seed at best). The other items are now in the hands of the Mercenaries, in their tool crates.A rundown of some more items:

Flare doesn't exist anymore.

Flashlight is obtained alongside the Translator in the Vortex Rikers from a dead guard (cannot be missed). The difference here is that the item is infinite.

The ForceField, obtained here for the first time in Noork; you can have more than one ForceField in the inventory now. Upon activation, it will create a purple dome around you for 15 seconds, making you completely immune to ANY incoming damage except falls I guess (you're still falling and the shield isn't bouncy); the shield cannot be destroyed by anything so it's at least 15 assured seconds of invulnerability. You can also walk on lava with this on! It's probably an useful item now. The ForceField, according to a log, is developed by an unknown alien race.

You fight here two Mercenaries and the Mercenary Elite. Mercenary Elites have always the standard size, 280 HP and are suggested to be the original race behind the Mercenary concept. They use a shiny blue suit, definitely more highly advanced compared to the regular Merc ones, almost like robots; Elites have no access to the TRANCE MODE state but do have an upgraded GOD MODE shield, lasting 10 seconds instead of 7 and doesn't change in any form the Merc's combat skills (same speed, same AI decision, use machinegun and rockets like normal).Elites' use of machinegun+rockets is improved; with the first weapon they have better accuracy, while the rockets travel faster. Their movement speed is higher and they have better dodging skills.Mercenary Elites do not use any sub-weapons but have access instead to three special power modes; the Merc's subweapons were based on Jazz2's ones, the Elite's power modes are based instead on that game's temporary firing powerups (flame/water/electric shield+cannon). An Elite can access a power mode whenever he wishes and it'll last 11 seconds after activation; he has then to wait a cooldown of 25 seconds before he can use another power mode. It's completely separate from the GOD MODE shield, so both things can go and stay up at the same time.These modes are:

Flaming shield: the Merc will surround himself with a burning aura of sort which damages anything nearby. He'll be able to shoot one (per fire powerup) flaming wave which travels on a very long ground distance; the fire will remain on ground for several seconds before they go away. Very damaging but easy to avoid, the problem is that this line of fire can take a good chunk of space around, which cuts down possible escape routes. The Merc will only be using this attack if there's a lot of empty room in front of him.

Electric shield: makes the Merc faster and can create an increasingly large dome of electric energy that heavily damages anything around and temporary deactivates the DP and ASMD from working. Fun to see with the spark and lighting effects alongside the GOD MODE shield up. Given how strong this is and how dangerous it is for anything around, the Merc will only use it without allies nearby.

Energetic shield: the Merc slowly heals himself; it comes with a gravity dome that moderately slows down anything that comes near him. Usually summoned if the Merc is low on health.

The Fourth's second songsection will play for the entirety of this Mercenary Elite battle and will be the last Mercenary you face in a while.

Vandora's whole entrance will look much more detailed, even from ground level you can see part of the other ruins - the place itself will still look like gray Roman/Medieval ruination instead of a proper temple. You can see a bit of the ISV-Kran on your right (by facing Vandora) and the suns are setting on the side of Harobed.When you reach the drawbridge, which will lower down as you come near it, you will be greeted by a loud thunderbolt right from Vandora and immediately after a Giant Manta from the temple side will come to attack you! (Fourth's second songsection will play again)He'll be exactly like the one fought before Dark Arena but now you have better weapons to face the thing (the Mercenaries' tool depots in Noork are full of items). The Nali that has escaped in one of the two entrance areas of Vandora will be waiting for you and will open the way to the temple.

The underwater secret is slightly harder to reach as the lake will have, other than Devilfish, some Slith (a stronger replacement for the Biterfish who are harmless now). The secret area still doesn't have the Flak Cannon however: there's a Super Health.

You can enter Vandora now. However if you enter it, the gates will close down and you can't go back to Noork/Terraniux/Harobed anymore.

Vandora - Nali Sky Goddess TempleMUSIC: UnrealCrypt.umx The first part of the combat songsection of UnrealCrypt is extended.

Textures will be overall more varied, cutting down the amount of those black windows (especially in the boss arena) to a reasonable amount. The place, while completely in ruins, shouldn't look lifeless thanks to unique Tarydium-powered torches, or Tarydium glowing stones like seen in 7B's Vandora maps. The gray medieval style of the temple should be an enough selling point but it should be more than that. Hard to pinpoint when you have Unreal Crypt as the main song which clearly doesn't fit lifeless places.Vandora's weather will be slightly more cloudy; there will be some rare thunderbolts and a soft rain that comes and goes. It shouldn't be a weather bad enough to give an evil mood to the place.You are able to see other parts of the temple from the outdoor portions of the map: their roofs, more decorative details, etc... You should see a pretty gothic-y view all around. The ISV-Kran cam also be spotted, once again, so is the Sunspire. The Sky Islands are hardly visible due to the cloudy sky.

A coop player that's located in a place that can't be accessed anymore at a certain point of the game will be teleported to the other player's position. Example: p1 enters Vandora, p2 still in Noork when p1 cannot access Noork anymore. P2 will be instantly teleported to p1; you'll get a warning about this for every map where this happens (in coop only).Vandora will still retain the coop-related secret passages (these will be more common in the game now since you'll be dealing with more "arena" battles).

In the first courtyard you will be greeted by the Cave Mantas, other than the Skaarj Scout who will drop later unless you harass him. The Cave Mantas are weakened down Mantas but they will do actions in unison (they are always found in groups).Vandora's progression has a major change: you have basically free roaming to any area from the very beginning - only exceptions being when you are stuck in an unavoidable battle and the coliseum arena being inaccessible until you blaze up the Torch Of Tranquility. The button to open the gate to the torch comes with a lighting+sign scheme that clearly tries to scare off the player from pressing it. The torch event itself is going to be much more glorious.Gasbags and Troopers won't appear yet. Instead you'll be dealing still with Skaarj Scouts/Warriors, Tentacles, Lesser and regular Brutes, some random Flies and Devilfish (their respawn shit is gone for good now though).

Though you will come face to face with the first Skaarj Berserker next to the Torch Of Tranquility (before opening it up like in the original game).Skaarj Berserkers are bigger, more orange, look very buffed up this time, have longer dreadlocks, their eyes glow red and their animations are edited to look like the Skaarj is pretty much out of its mind ONLY when he's going out for someone (very sudden reactions and taking very small breaks to then resuming attacking at an insane acceleration). Since they run fast and progressively even more the closer they are to death, with temporary acceleration sprints that depend on the damage they receive (by damage amount, not damage ticks BUT there's a cap otherwise they'll be slowed), you'll be forced to run while constantly watching them - so typical backward running as you if you're being chased. They cannot also be stunned: at best they can only be slowed down and only few things are able to do that, which is anything that goes off past their speed boost cap (multiple rockets/grenades hitting at once and Titan's stones, generally); this makes strong explosive weapons harder to use against them, making the Eightball and the Flak not the universal choices against Berserkers. Berserkers have 640 HP and are able to do big lunge leaps, even if they're swimming, in order to reach you. And they can attack you in the air if they're close, in the meantime. If they are running at a regular speed, they will break any boxes in their way (or setting ablaze explosive barrels), otherwise they'll send crap flying away. They can also damage in this way anyone who bump into them, depending on the mass (bigger is the damage if the victim's mass is much lower than the Berserker's) and usually they always start with this "bump" before going with melee attacks. Melee attacks aren't that more damaging compared to regular Skaarj but the Berserkers' ones have greater range (noticeable with spins) and they also have unique melee attacks:

A long forward dash melee attack that a Berserker does to initiate from afar, generally when their enemy is looking elsewhere or not aware that he's around (the Torch battle will begin like this, you press the button and he'll begin rushing you from the Torch's chamber). The Skaarj run at you in a crawled position, with its claws constantly sliding on the ground (creating sparks as a result). While this can be very easily dodged, this attack will stab the victim with a special animation sequence where the victim itself can't do anything but watch: the Berserker will lift it in the air and then throw it onward. This deals 200 HP, which is pretty big even for monsters, however there won't be any special animation sequence for the Berserker against big ones like any of the bosses, large flying creatures and Behemoths.

A surprise jumping slash. Sometimes the Berserker, if not seen, may decide to climb on something with its claws (or going to an upper floor if there's one). The Berserker will then jump on the victim with its claws open - think of a downward lunge. This will push away and will stun the target for a second or so though (depending on the mass) - dangerous if you are cornered because the Berserker will quickly resume attacking. This may be stronger on regular monsters: some won't be fast enough to stand up from this attack and the Berserker will finish them off by sticking its claws into their bodies, instantly killing them.

An unstoppable flurry of fast and powerful eight slashes, where the Skaarj will take a big step forward after every single one of them SO KEEP RUNNING/DODGING BACKWARD. They can be really deadly, even at 500 HP plus full armor set the player will die if it's hit by all the slashes. Any monster that the Berserker fights that isn't one of the three major boss ones won't be able to retaliate at all if they're hit by this attack - meaning something like a Behemoth can't do shit if a Berserker does this to him and will probably die. Flying creatures won't be able to fly away, either.

Skaarj Berserkers have access to a temporary "enrage" mode, easily visible by their body becoming unnaturally bulkier and their veins becoming more visible and more blue/red; their voices will also limit to just gibberish growls. In this mode they will gain the buff of an Assault Vest: 90% damage absorption, lasts 15 seconds. It's used always once in a fight but after it goes off they won't be using it again unless the battle will extend for more minutes. Don't hit them with anything during this rage buff.Berserkers have a unique melee attack to instantly kill small Mantas, Pupae (yeah, not friendly anymore) Flies and Tentacles (chances of this happening are rare anyway but hey if you want you can bring the Vandora's Berserker for a trip in the temple) and will also have in store a 100% guaranteed melee finisher for ANY creature that has 10% of default HP left (except human characters).Berserkers will chase their target forever; even if you seem to have lost him behind, he's still running wherever you are. However if the Berserker finds someone else in its track, he will stop and will beat the shit out of it - THEN he'll resume chasing you. He cannot chase between map locations though. Generally, Skaarj Berserkers should win against any enemy unless he's really outnumbered or if he's just overwhelmed by something like 2+ Behemoths; for every monster defeated the Berserker will regain 160 HP (always up to 640) and he won't attempt to run away from boss creatures. Skaarj Berserkers can possibly put a fight against Titans and Warlords but even at full health chances that he won't win. Winning against a Queen is an impossible feat.The one in Vandora will have a health bar and has the map's action songsection playing on. He will be very strong at this part of the game and you won't find another Berserker until the second third of it. He also needs to be killed if you want to turn on the Torch first. Since he's big and the environment around isn't that large, the Stinger can prove very effective with its HP-based explosion damage.The other Berserkers you fight in Vandora have been replaced by Brutes.

The Flak Cannon is in this map, hidden however. It's located in that secret below the dock area, the underwater room with the dead Nali holding the Flak in the original version of the game; here it's your first chance to get the weapon. The weapon will not be any different, except looking more like its UT1/2/3/4 counterparts but always mostly gray-colored, without glowing flak projectiles. Flak Shells will be capable of breaking doors/barriers to secret areas just like the Eightball does.

You'll be raiding the rest of the temple anyway; Troopers are replaced with either Scouts or Lesser Brutes and some of the item placements have been rearranged more logically. The DP Power Up is still in the same spot and the Nali still rewards you to the location's sole Super Health (like in the original game, this will be one hard Nali to save because of the patrolling Skaarj BUT remember that after the courtyard battle you can go directly to the upper floor of Vandora's shrine).The cylinder pool's bottom will still have the weird lighting effect but only very visible when you are underwater (it's some green flash of light) but it's trickery only - and this time the cylinder will go down for much more for additional trolling.Regarding the Vandora's image, won't be caring if the image will be remade or anything but now only the ASMD's primary fire will cause something: the Vandora image will absorb the ASMD bolt and it'll briefly shine and quickly after, a thunderbolt will strike through the ceiling opening in the same area, blasting the table (and the ground below) to bits and revealing a buried ForceField. Note that the original game was going to have a similar event too but was never implemented. This should also address why the Nali brings you to Vandora's shrine after opening the Super Health secret.Throughout the temple you might see some stones falling off, generally from the ceiling. Nothing too dangerous. There will be also windows where you can view never seen before ruins, etc...The Titan arena is still visible from that locked gate behind the stage - you will also see the Titan this time, seemingly sleeping and not breathing. Nothing happens if you shoot him.

The Invisibility secret is still a thing and the room containing it now looks like a fucking beautiful shrine of sort with green lights from the side walls. There's no more Flare, so the way to open the secret is different.The message will now refer to dragon face which you now have to stare, in front of both its eyes. If you wait a minute, the doors will open and you can get the Invisibility. The item won't have that huge-ass blue filter in front of the screen when it's on (only on the screen borders) and it will work now if you turn it on during battle - aside scripted bosses only Skaarj Officers and Lords will be able to see you regardless (HEATVIEW), while Berserkers will just try hitting/meleeing the air. The item is not infinite also so you'll have to search for more of it in the rest of the game but it'll last longer overall.Also remember that this doesn't make you SILENT - that's the Dampener's job. Crawl or walk, don't run.

The Titan arena will now have four more staircase sets (two on each side) and they'll have sidesteps to them instead of being straight stairs, so navigation won't be dreadful anymore as you'll be back/side running a lot. There are blue Tarydium lights around instead of torches. Lastly, there will be a tick rain during the battle with lots of thunderbolts, which'll make shit a bit intense.

The Titan here is like the one seen in Dark Arena with the special armor, with 3600 HP now. God's intervention at it again - this time the Titan will be hit by one of the many thunderbolts in the sky, supposedly cast by Vandora and he'll wake up in a beastly way with electric powers! Battle music starts.The strategy overall is the same regarding how to kill him but this time he'll use unique attacks and won't throw rocks, plus he won't move (he's bigger as well). You also have these better, and more, sets of stairs to move around the place; rain will make the visibility a bit shit however:

Titan will point at you and half a second later a thunderbolt from his hand will be cast on your position. This requires a timed jump or dodge, running won't help as you'll be hit by the splash damage; sometimes, it'll be just too hard to successfully dodging every time as the boss will use this attack a lot. Changing arena floor (not on the stairs however) is an even better idea and you are more guaranteed to not be hit. Deals 40 HP.

Titan will do an animation similar to the chest beating one (without beating its chest though); a second later, a loud thunder crack is heard. After four more seconds a group of thunderbolts will strike the ground at once, hitting anything in the arena. To dodge this you have to hide in the outer perimeter of the arena, below the circular stone walkway. Deals 100 HP.

Titan will point with his both arms on either his left, his right or his front and after some seconds an electric field will be staying for 15 seconds on the arena, covering an area that goes through three sets of staircases (so you'll be left with an area between two staircases and over, or the extreme left or right if the Titan will point at his front). Staying in the electric field is very dangerous and can kill you quickly.

If the player is on the outer/top floors, the Titan will do an electric-charged hand swipe which will hit anything in a large area in front of him except on the floors right below the arena stage. Deals 85 HP.

If the player is on the inner/bottom floors, the Titan will do an electric-charged punch next to your location, covering quite a large radius; outer floors won't be affected. Deals 140 HP.

All the attacks above, except for the electric field one, will make your ASMD and DP malfunction for 10 seconds (and it stacks). Since the door of the arena will close when the battle is on, the coop players will have to use the infamous elevator coop-only passage: once the elevator reaches the top the players will instantly slide into the arena. Players must try to stay separate in order to avoid the hand thunderbolt attack, as it will simultaneously strike ALL players at once.

Upon death, the Titan will do a dramatic death, unable to withstand the electric powers, self-exploding and gibbing part of his body as a result. The rain will also completely stops. The way to the exit is open and so the arena doors, so you can go back to the rest of the temple if you want.This time, the exit points straight in the direction of the ISV-Kran's rear (the ship points a bit toward the right instead), so you'll be expecting getting in the Trench from a different point of the map. Before though, you'll cross a large, heavily detailed garden with a cemetery, based on the unused portion of Vandora in the original game after the exit point. On the other end of the area there's a wrecked corridor that leads to the Trench.

Last edited by UBerserker on 15 May 2017, 00:41, edited 1 time in total.

The TrenchMUSIC: Fifth.umx Fifth requires some sample remastering? The main songsection is pretty awkward as it feels like the music goes off and on (lots of silent parts).

This time, the first corridor (which is a straight one only to the opening but longer) will lead to the very end of the Trench, on the opposite side of where the ISV-Kran is - not exactly dead center as you'll be slightly facing the left hand side of the location. The story is that before the Kran crashed, there was a large courtyard which led to Vandora's temple, with a lot of abandoned ruins placed around. The crashed ship destroyed everything and the trench and its surrounding are riddled with remains of these ruins, alongside broken pieces that the ship itself left behind.The Kran itself will look more imposing and much less basic, now with actual large side wings that can be seen over the mountains. It's going to be definitely another (destructive in theme) visual showcase of the game, helped also by the ongoing sunset (suns are almost gone) which makes the whole thing way darker lighting-wise.The Sunspire behind the Kran can be seen, now much closer; Sky Islands can also be spotted far above in the sky.

Before falling into the trench, there are a lot of human survivors from the Kran who managed to climb up in the hole, now dead (in a crude way: someone smashed their bones or are burned); they left a lot of ammo, especially Eightball stuff, which helps after Vandora a lot. You will also be getting the Flak Cannon here if you missed the secret one in the previous map.There's nothing to do in this corridor so you have to fall down; you can't go back anymore after you jump in the trench.

After running in the trench for a while, you begin seeing creatures floating over the mountains and toward the Kran: the Gasbags. There are ten of them patrolling in total and none more will spawn this time.Gasbags seem to breath out black smoke from their mouths and you can also see fire glows (always inside their mouths, on the teeth). They will have better animations, they'll have a detailed model, they'll look more gray than brown, their eyes will still remain shining gray/white.If they are close to solid and safe surfaces, the Gasbags will use their arms to move better around, especially when chasing someone.As read in the dead humans' logs, Gasbags act in a different way here: they are attracted by anything that smells of fire, by very hot places and by crashed ships of human/mercenary origin (probably because of their engine type). They only attack anyone that is bringing harm to any other living being or thing: this means that as long as you don't shoot, you're good to go in their eyes.

Gasbags' belches can be charged-up if they have to hit a target that's found far away - the belches just travel faster and deal more damage (40 HP is the default, maximum is 70 HP). The belches will now have splash damage and will burn their opponents for a 5 seconds (1 hp per second, stacks with multiple belches); this burning effect will also work on any regular surface - be sure to not get cornered by the flames. Belches also won't self-explode anymore after reaching a certain range: they'll just lose power and the projectile will burn down to nothingness. There's no interaction between belches and any other projectile.Gasbags won't dodge anymore but have 320 HP; will heavily resist burning damage except for lava or strong engine fire - no more damage between themselves if they're hit by other belches. They will also be picking shot Eightball grenades (as much as if they can) and throw them back at you (they can be stopped in time with something like a rocket). If they die throughout anything explosive or with strong blasting force, they will explode causing minor damage to anything around except the Gasbags themselves.

Gasbags have however extremely improved melee attacks: don't let them (if they are attacking you) go near you. They will beat you to the ground with punches and pounds - one Gasbag can be already deadly enough, let alone more; they'll also be able to pull you toward themselves with their hands if you try to run away. This will make them very dangerous even to other enemies up-close, including Titans and possibly Skaarj Berserkers. Also helps the fact they can move around better by "walking" on a surface with their arms (or pushing through with the help of walls etc... makes sense). Ten of them in Trench are pretty hazardous at the moment; their eyes are their weak points but currently you don't have neither a Razorjack or a Rifle. If you dodge around much and if you are able to hit them with flak shells or rockets (they don't dodge, remember), that's ok as long as you don't get close (they will move toward you more aggressively the closer they are to their targets).

Instead, don't shoot anything and proceed through the Trench. Similar to the UBeta, there's a large ISV-Kran wing piece sticking in the ground - behind it there's a Titan, who will surprise you by throwing that wing piece out of the way. Fifth's second songsection will be used for this guy when he attacks you.This will be the first regular version of the enemy you encounter: he has no armor whatsoever (including the leather - he has just a yellow/white body), no HP bar and no special mode; he just fights like the Dark Arena's Titan without all the pillar shit. The regular Titan's HP is 1800 and will have no damage resistances. They will also only throw whatever they can find; in this case, the trench is full of stones from the destroyed Vandora ruins, and the Titan can pick these up, sometimes even big things that require two arms. These latter large pieces will be usually used by the Titan as longer melee weapons and also as shields to protect them from other attacks until the piece itself eventually breaks apart.You don't have to fight him: lure him closer to the Gasbags that will take notice of the Titan trying to harm you. Gasbags are seen by the Nali as watchdogs created by their fire god - most of them are tamed by the Nali for protection or as peacekeepers between Nali themselves.The Titan will either lose or win against the ten Gasbags - if he's alive and if you want, finish the Titan off. Otherwise, run to the Kran, which is guarded by two Skaarj Warriors. This is important as you may want to fight them before the Gasbags will ever get close to the ship (taking notice of the battle between you and the Skaarj). The way to the Kran's entrance is made easier with the help of a drawbridge, and if it ends up that the Gasbags are after your ass because they saw you attacking, you can close the Kran's hangar door from the inside (yes you can open and close the door from inside now, there's a cabin on the ground floor) before it's too late.

There's nothing to do in this Kran hangar aside getting some ammo. There are now stairs that go to the second floor instead of the stupid elevator shit. You can go inside the Kran and exit back to the Trench (for nothing, really) every time you want. The Kran itself is one single location and even from the end of Deck 1, you can go back until the beginning of the Trench.

ISV-KranMUSIC: Newmca9.umxKran songs have been all unified in Newmca9, with each ambient track being a songsection, alongside the action one (the Kran2's one survives). Ambient songsections will transition in an "overtaking" way when you change deck: if you enter Deck1, Kran32-A will transition to Kran2-A in the most similar portion of the latter song.

The ISV-Kran is one full blown location. Return to the Trench can be done any time.The Kran will retain its original theme and color scheme, of course with a massive detail/poly bump that the original version lacked. There will be additional corridors and pathways that should carry the original layout in the modern gaming era. A hassle describing all - only important build changes will be mentioned. Item placement will be much more sensible and logic, placed in visible positions instead of being scattered randomly in every corner.The most important change here is that there's no Deck4. There's just Deck3, 2 and 1. This is to prevent confusions about which Decks 3 and 2 are in the middle section, something that just wasn't explained well (if at all) in the original game.Regarding the slime, you are supposed to avoid it, even if the Toxin Shield provides temporary protection. Note that the Toxin Shield is a regenerating item, so you won't need to find any other (and you won't because there aren't - for coop, each level comes with its own spawning loadout).Mini-panels to activate elevators are now fully close to the elevators themselves instead of being 10 feets away - the first area is already an example of this.

The first major Skaarj battle revolves one Scout spotting you and running to the alarm/door panel like in the original game. If he activates the alarm, you'll have to beat him and four more spawning Skaarj Scouts - and this time the Scouts won't spawn one at a time but one after every 30 seconds, so you'll have to kill them fast as they come. The alarm has a countdown until it turns off, and once it's down you can use the panel to open the vent shaft; the doors to the successive area are hard-locked and they can only be unlocked by another panel/wireset found in the vent shaft itself.However there's a way to avoid said Skaarj battle. If you have the Invisibility, you can sneak to the alarm panel and turn it off, alongside opening the vent shaft door. The Skaarj Scout will be now alone.About the vent shafts (they are above the corridors, remember), you'll directly access them with a ladder that will go down upon activation. The fan+slime pits are now only there for decoration. The panel you seek is now somewhere in the shaft and there's no Razorjack this time around. For the exit, you use an elevator to go down to ground level (on the walkway above the slime) and then use the same vent shafts to go back in the first Kran area. The middle bridge is now gone in the slime area, too.

The crate area will have the first Skaarj Assassin encounter. They are basically Skaarj Scouts with a black armor but what sets them apart is that they can become invisible. Invisibility is broken for a second every time they shoot and for 2,5 seconds every time they melee (cooldown just resets, doesn't stack). They cannot be heard so unless they attack first you can't tell if one is around. Assassins are generally alone or together with another Assassin and when it comes to odds of appearances (still in game), the Assassins are the ones most affected by this. They'll be throughout the whole Kran, mostly only in areas devoid of enemies - and even if you return to them after clearing an objective. Assassins have the same stats as Scouts but they stop attacking more often in order to re-activate their invisibility. Damaging the Skaarj won't affect its invisibility, and the cloack effect is slightly SLIGHTLY visible.

All the non-panel glass decos in Kran can be destroyed. The third floor which has the panel to deactivate the hardlock to Deck2 won't have a Skaarj battle - just another Assassin coming out from one of the vent shafts (ceiling ones only, the wall ones are all closed). This chamber will also not lock you in temporarily.The room with the GES doesn't contain a GES anymore - it's a mini armory with health and Flak content.

Deck2 will contain access to a set of vent shafts that connect to pretty much anywhere in the ship. Their access points will be the same ones as seen in Seven Bullets but they'll go to different places of the ship, including few new rooms (generally about the ship's engine, maintenance stuff, etc...) that are separated from perma-locked doors spotted in the regular decks. You'll also be able to see through grates what happens on some mountains outside the Kran - you'll be seeing a Titan or so beating on the ship like how it's mentioned in the first message you come across in Deck3. Nothing more will be visible as it's almost night.The vent shaft system will connect to Deck 3, Deck 1, and various key areas of Deck 2 itself. Some of the areas are locked and can only be unlocked from one side. The advantage of using the vent shaft, at least before you access Deck1, is to avoid roaming Skaarj that will appear after clearing some objectives, including Assassins. Ammo is limited and normally you can't take on against all of them (for the record: there will be many spawning in but ARE NOT infinite).

The shuttle bay is not really optional anymore. The large doors in the Kran now require a special card to be opened and the only dead human guard who has it is found somewhere in the shuttle bay. The large doors have been redesigned to open sideways and faster; while you can use the vent shafts to overcome them (and removing the need to enter the shuttle bay), some of the battles in the Deck2's corridors require these doors open as a mean for the player to easily escape from the enemies, instead of using one single exit access to a vent shaft which can be very annoying and dangerous. Skaarj can corner-kill you way better in this game.The shuttle bay's doors will remain forever open after activation and the location itself will be slightly redesigned to look like a proper shuttle bay. You'll be fighting two Skaarj Warriors on the top floor - and you won't have much room to move around. One of the tunnels will have the key card to open the Deck2 doors.

Deck2's main corridors will have the basement corridor that was cut from early versions of the original Unreal map. Accessible throughout a basement floor in the last room of Deck2, this corridor is a connection between the containment field generator section and the cooling system control one.The slime flood in the pathway to the containment field generator section now looks really dangerous and boiling and it will immediately kill you even with the Toxin Shield on. Regarding this section, the electric generator at the section's bottom area is not in the way anymore but there are now two of them next to the side walls. The slime in the successive area is also gone, as the basement floor is now legitimately accessible throughout an elevator. Destroying the forcefield generators will turn also some of the lighting in the nearby areas either off or darker. The main engineering section has more complexly designed panels (as with the rest of the Kran but further effort is done in this area). The generator's energy is now enclosed within some kind of special glass so at least you don't get accidentally insta-killed anymore (their activation will also be more hype, you can actually see the energy flowing through various walls).

For the record, Skaarj Troopers are still NOT introduced yet. You'll be fighting Scouts/Warriors/Assassins solely.

The entrance to Deck1 is larger/more grand. This part of the map will also be re-designed to have the same artstyle as the previous two decks, however with a grayer coloration (in the original game, Deck1 used Starship.utx textures that were part of a cut Unreal map - won't be the case here).The super Skaarj Scout ambush is relatively the same, except now you'll be dealing up to three Scouts at a time instead of two. When you manage to cross the area and turn on the laser barrier, any of the present Scout will retreat; if you go back in these corridors, these Skaarj will show up again. The rest that haven't appeared yet (it's 20 Scouts in total that ambush you at the beginning of Deck1) will now roam Deck 3 and 2 - and will come back to Deck1's corridors if their friends will be killed there. This is where the regular vent shafts will start to become hazardous as some Scouts will also be roaming through them. However, late in Deck1, you'll find a different and safe set of vent shafts that the Skaarj do not use.

Whichever direction you take around the lab, you will be greeted by two Skaarj Troopers walking right in front of you, coming behind the corner. These are armed with a Dispersion Pistol and they will use it to the fullest of its potential (accuracy aside) - it also won't be infinite. All Troopers will have a DP because they will eventually run out of ammo with other weapons this time. Note that the Troopers won't be able to use the "rainbow" super DP bolt.Troopers are more adept at dodging and will keep always a safe distance, never opting for melees unless cornered (similar to the Skaarj Warrior AI) - and at best they'll use a lunge.The Troopers' shield is slightly larger and now it has respectable effects; plus, the Troopers can walk around with it on and they can have it turned on whenever they want but once again, they can't shoot while it's activated. The gimmick here is that the shield will absorb any incoming damage, working like some sort of vacuum - even for splash damage. While hitscan/direct type projectiles are eaten by the shield, much of splash damage (rockets, flak shells) will be absorbed by the shield and the Trooper will lose much less HP as a result. This isn't the same with nonexplosive weapons though: if you aim at a Trooper with his shield on, you'll hit the Trooper with full damage. TLDR: if you can't hit anything but the shield, don't bother wasting any ammo.The shield absorbs damage and it charges up with energy that's all reversed on the glow part of the shield tool. This absorbed energy comes with a cap - anything more gets discarded and replaced (no impact gameplay-wise: the Troopers can forever use the Shields to absorb damage but this reserved absorbed energy pack has limited capacity). When charged, the Trooper can release from hand an EMP shockwave that works exactly like a Skaarj lunge with bigger range (same damage and stun type), plus it is able to turn off the player's DP and ASMD for a few seconds. Troopers' DP are not dropped.Lastly, all Troopers have infrared visors. Invisibility is therefore useless.

Rest of Deck1 is roughly the same, with way better visual details around. The lab contains the Bloblets, who already reacts to whoever is in the lab before they are set free; when the forcefields are turned off, the Bloblets try to amalgamate together but something goes wrong and all of them except one die; the real encounter against them is so delayed but you'll be dealing with one blob who all it does is chasing you everywhere: this time, they can fluidly move through everything and can also leap to close distances (it also counts as an attack). It can only be killed through weapons with splash damage - bullets and bolts just pass through it. In terms of visuals, they look like fat crawling balls of green detergent. Their contact damage is also way stronger (player's HP will just decrease constantly), which is dangerous if multiple blobs attack you - the Toxin Shield can prove useful however. When a blob dies it will evaporate very quickly, leaving no trace whatsoever.

For the crew berths, the event with the Skaarj dying to an exploding panel is still kept in (still for comical reasons but it's more violent this time) while the ASMD cores on top of the big crate are now on floor level. From this section of the level you can also access the alternate set of safe vent shafts already mentioned; through this way you'll also access outdoor bridges that run through parts of the ship. You can't see much through the mountains except for an industrial complex and a volcano, far, far away.The top section of the lab is darker and also creepier. Aside having a Skaarj Assassin sneaking around, stored in the middle of the area there's a weird structure of alien origins, which uses the Starship.utx's "submarine"-style textures. There are no related logs, except for the Assassin's one who also can't figure out what is it. There are ammo, Invisibility and armors around the area.

The observatory is now completely re-designed and it's now a proper, not-destroyed observatory chamber. One of the Kran sub-commanders is dead here and he has the key to turn off the forcefields that block the way to the main bridge.However, this area comes with virtual technology that makes use of the entire room - all the walls will be turned into saved space imagery (think of like a super advanced virtual presentation) and you can't tell anymore where's the exit. Somehow, getting the key card you wanted will get you ambushed: the virtual shit gets activated and now all you can see aside of the planetary images is just the solid panels in the middle of the room. Meanwhile, since you don't have clear vision of the exterior walls, Skaarj will ambush you from there. Up to three Skaarj Troopers will pop up, appearing one by one. Once they are all dead, a Skaarj Infantry will appear, armed with a Stinger and with a heavier-looking armor than what the Troopers have (they have 185 HP instead of 170). The Stinger is stronger now so be careful - on the other hand the projectiles are easier to spot. The four Skaarj will appear always in the same spots so you can charge Eightball ammo at them at the correct time. Once they are dead, the virtual technology system shuts down and you can head to the bridge.

Music will completely end now.

The main bridge is completely redesigned to meet super modern standards, together with a great view of the Spire Village below and the Sunspire in the distance (alongside the Sky Islands). You use an elevator to go down to the teleport pod this time. You can't return anymore to the Kran once you translocate to the village below.

Spire VillageMUSIC: Hub3.umxAfter a quick ride through teleport effects, you land below in the village. See the massive, re-designed and crashed Kran above you and its broken wings fallen over the valley. There will be a lot of mountains around but the Sunspire from afar will still stick out, including more glimpses of the floating Sky Islands far above the tower. Meanwhile, it's full night now.

Spire Village plays like its original version; Titans are still there, depending on the difficulty chosen:

Easy will have one Titan just right next to the starting point like in the original game, around the four hits.

Medium will have a second Titan nearby the lone hut midway throughout the valley.

Hard will have a third Titan next to the second one.

Unreal will have a fourth Titan guarding the exit of the first valley.

All the same locations of the original game, except Titans are overall much weaker with always 1800 HP and no special damage resistances. They also won't have almost anything to throw around: there are just few palms, some lone big rocks or Kran broken pieces; so most of the time they'll just chase you and use their ground shockwave attacks. When you fight a Titan, you'll hear the unused Hub3's battle music.

This time, the roof part of each hut is always accessible throughout a ladder - no more JumpBoots bullshit. This means extra ammo.

The land is filled with some sort of blue fog/smoke, possibly caused by the massive lava lake below the Sunspire.

The exit is guarded by the first two Skaarj Gunners you encounter in the game. They are visibly more bulky this time around, they resist explosive damage quite a bit and have strong melee attacks (they are more prone to run over the player instead of staying afar). Also they are fully loaded of Eightball ammo and will always use exploding-on-impact grenades unless they're fought indoor. You also can't tell when their rockets are lock-on on you until they shoot it. Lastly, they have 240 HP and have stronger mass - overall much stronger. Some of them can wield Flak Cannons and GES Bio Rifles (later in the game however), even a combination of weapons but the majority prefer to use the Eightball.

The exit gate can be opened by just walking onto it and you can also do the same on the opposite side if you want to go back to the village.

The SunspireMUSIC: Hub3.umxThe ASMD core secret behind the wall is still a thing. Overall the gateway looks more sophisticated.

The pathway to the tower entrance looks more dangerous this time as it feels like it's falling apart (it doesn't but it's undulated and less secure) and the smoke caused by the lava lake below causes vision issues (the whole pit is larger and what's below looks even scarier than ever - you don't want to fall below right?).These vision issues don't bother Skaarj Gunners that much. They are clearly aware of you and of your rocket ambushes; you can still try to use the rockets to push them far away - however their Shields will absorb explosion momentum.

A Nali falls in pain from somewhere above (you can see it's a Skaarj who does this on the outdoor pathway on the middle of the tower) into the lava lake. Poor end.

So, the Sunspire will indeed retain the original layout, with key areas trying to differentiate much more thanks to additional decorations and meshes so not all the rooms look the same. There's absolute free-roaming and a lot of new secret passages with ammo and tools, or just shortcuts. The elevators that completely skip the long outdoor pathway are broken this time, while Gasbags and Pupae will not appear (you'll be dealing with more Tentacles, and Mantas while going outside). Warriors, Assassins, Troopers, Infantries and Gunners and few rare Brutes will be your main villains here. Be sure to save the Nali when you find them (one Skaarj is going to be ready to kill a Nali like in the original game).

Your objective is to reach the top but some of the places are completely dark, only few areas have ammo and the Skaarj are utterly powerful and their placement is randomized. This is why you want to explore, find secrets by breaking down walls, as most of the ammo is now hidden there instead of being randomly scattered around. No new weapons also but the game will throw you some extra Amplifier, more Invisibility and also the Dampener. The Dampener is still a consumable item but in here it will last much longer, same charge as the Invisibility - but after it's turned on there's a 3 seconds wait until the Dampener's effects come into full play. The item once again silences all your sounds, COMPLETELY. This means you can just stay behind a Skaarj, shooting around and jumping like a retard and he won't hear you. You can also charge a bunch of grenades behind somebody at no risk; otherwise, you can go with the Invisibility+Dampener combo to pass through places without being spotted by anybody except Troopers, who will anyway still unable to hear Dampened opponents. This is useful somehow in a Skaarj-filled Sunspire.

Some of the Sunspire elevators will be larger (some of the key ones are re-designed) and the entirety of the place will be illuminated by either blue or orange Tarydium glowing stones. The more you go up in the Sunspire, the more the rooms will look better in quality, much more royal, even with carpets and other cooler decos. Also, the tower is taller, and the final long elevator will go up for additional meters as a result. Navigation improved with each pathway having a sign where it tells you where you are going. Finally, there are some locked doors that lead to never seen areas... that you can't still see. You'll just never know for now.

Quality of life improvements and more unique-looking Sunspire rooms and areas is the name of the game. The top part will also look like a garden and more highly decorated in general.

The top part has a mini-boss fight in the form of a Giant Manta. It will quickly fly onto a group of Skaarj who will fall down and the monster wants to do the same with you. The crystal room is locked and the only way to enter it is to climb the top of the Sunspire and fall through the opening hole used by the crystal to shoot the beam in the sky. The Giant Manta of course won't let you do this (punishment is most of the time sending you down in the lava) so you have to kill the thing.

The Skypod call comes with a special cutscene showing a devastating charged beam from the crystal, shot straight in the sky causing a strong light. A Skypod, from the Sky Island you managed to see above you, will come down and waits forever until you get inside.From the top of the Sunspire you can view all the surrounding - another visual showcase where you see the Kran, Vandora, Noork, Terraniux, Gasbags in the background, what appears to be Nyleve and also future locations such as... a volcano, some sort of ancient temples, huge Mercenary-looking ships, massive industrial facilities, alien stuff, a big storm, a giant lake, more Nali settlements... a bit of everything.

There will be messages about some of the Sky Islands that have been conquered by Skaarj and news about two Mercenary groups fighting against each other.

Sit now in this re-designed Skypod that has a Tarydium-charged light and it'll automatically fly to the next location, which is not the one you expect. The ride lasts some minutes and for once in the skypod, you can see what's happening outside; it's only a tiny hole though.

Haven's FortressMUSIC: SkyCity.umxSkyCity will be remastered, with some of the more cheesy and silent synths being replaced or removed. It will sound similar to a dark Mekalopolis without any dance bits (unused UT3 song). The song also has a completely new action songsection. It's a fast techno/glitchy version of the ambient one, including a lot of bell samples. It's supposed to be pretty dark.The ambient music begins once you get out of the Skypod.

So looks like you are not in Na Pali Haven but this place, which is the counterpart to the removed Amethyst from the original Unreal. This is some sort of "military" Nali city/island that serves to guard the entrance to Na Pali Haven from whoever evil comes from the Sunspire, and also as an outpost used as a defense against any flying opponent. Resistance against the Skaarj proven futile, however, and now the place is completely devastated and raided of almost anything (which should fit the song). While conserving a bit of the royal Nali atmosphere (most of the buildings are still left intact but it's a ghost town), you can see the Skaarj are clearly around considering the huge amount of lamps the aliens put around - the place itself is quite bright thanks to those, otherwise it'd be completely dark since there's no sun illumination whatsoever. The island is also surrounded by clouds, so expect fog around and zero visibility whatsoever if you try to see what's below on the planet.

The island itself isn't big at all: you get out of the Skypod and you find yourself in a building with some ammo. Go outside and you find yourself in a huge plaza, with all buildings around it, some pathways that lead to balconies to see what's below the island (aka nothing due to fog and clouds, and lack of lighting outside of the Skaarj lamps that are mostly in the core areas of the location), a big building next to the center of the area which is a station with more Skypods that lead to the Haven - the proper Sky Island is found in front of you as you access the plaza, located however way above than the islands you are on. It's quite a sight.Overall the feel/theme of the Fortress plaza resembles stuff such as 3Crystals and map 2 of Deja Vu - it has a deathmatch feel because you'll fight there.Buildings around the area are either destroyed, closed or can be accessed. The ones that can be accessed lead you to these buildings' roofs that contain Skaarj-made turret-cannons - and yes, you can use them with the action/grab button (press to use or to leave it). Primary/Secondary fire works exactly the AVRiL from UT2k4/UT3 (it's the official name there), anti-air rocket launcher with the secondary fire being a laser target device used to aim where to land the shot rockets. You are very vulnerable while using these turrets and they can be destroyed, so be careful.Lots of ammo and health are around the place, obviously, since it's a formerly abandoned military outpost now conquered by Skaarj.

When you try to approach the Skypod station, the doors will be locked by a laser barrier. Music stops and you know shit is happening - indeed, few seconds later and a group of Skaarj Assassin will go after you. Once they are dead it's time for the big battle with the new music songsection: Troopers, Infantries and Gunners, armed with DP, Stingers, Eightballs, ASMDs and Flak Cannons. They'll appear randomly everywhere, sometimes grouped so ASMD combos and Eightball rockets can be quite good.

After they are all dead, three Skaarj Fighters will appear, one by one. They are the Skaarj fighter ships! With a complete and very alien redesign, these fighters can stay afloat in one place and shoot you with barrages of Brute-style rockets. They can also shoot mortar bombs, extremely deadly (but not fast) and capable of destroying the AVRiL turrets in one hit. While the Skaarj Fighters are not that hard to hit, they have a lot of HP. This is where the AVRiL turrets come into play; if you played UT2/3 you know what to do, just be careful at the mortars. Invisibility won't help you there. The ForceField powerups instead will be extremely useful this time and can protect you and the turret at the same time from just about anything!

Once all the Fighters are dead, things are not done yet. The dreaded green-eyed, Skaarj Officer appears in the battlefield, equipped with a Razorjack.Skaarj Officers are more special opponents this time, sporting 360 HP, an absurd-looking sharp white/purple armor and some sort of cloak. Skaarj Officers solely use the Razorjack as a weapon and is able to hit enemies hiding behind corners with a 100% guaranteed accuracy as long as the enemies don't move. So don't stop - and run also erratically because the Skaarj will easily predict your movements and move the blades toward the destined spot.Officers can shoot with the Shield on, even when moving; their main skill is teleporting, used either defensively for retreat or offensively for sneak attacks, or just to pop up in front of your face and then using a charged Shield forcewave attack - and the Skaarj will use every chance to decapitate somebody, especially if that somebody is stunned. Officers will never lose trace of their opponents and will keep using teleports to close distances and to dodge attacks. Melee-wise, they are the same as the Gunners. Officers hold 300 blades for their Razorjacks.Overall, they are strong but still fight like regular enemies instead of mini-bosses. They won't be that rare.

In this fight, trying to use an AVRiL will lead the Officer to teleport next to you and decapitate you on sight very quickly.

When the Officer dies, the music stops and you can finally pick the Razorjack, looking cleaner and flashier. The weapon works exactly like the original counterpart but there's something extra you might have noticed during the Skaarj Officer battle: you can charge the blades (the weapon is not auto-fire anymore) up to the point the weapon's green panel glows purple. From there, blades shot will explode on impact in a purple explosion. They still decapitate but they lose the ability to bounce off-walls. This also works with the secondary fire; charged blades are surrounded by a visible purple fire+trail.Weapon holds now 100 ammo but the packs will now give you 30 blades each.

Officer will also drop a keycard which is used to turn off the laser barrier. You access the station and therefore another Skypod which will quickly lead you to the giant Sky Island above.

This stuff is great. It's pretty much how I would want a full-on remake of the original Unreal to be. Like, everything makes sense. I just keep imagining cool little details like little playing around with animations when you pick up the weapon for the first time. It's good stuff. The more I read this, the more I wish I could actually play something like this. Sadly I don't think an actual remake of U1 would be very good considering a lot of things.

Nightmare Kitteh wrote:Sadly I don't think an actual remake of U1 would be very good considering a lot of things.

I think it can still very much work considering how its name is attached to the most popular gaming engine, and considering how System Shock remakes are now a thing (I don't think they were that popular back then?) but sure for something like an Unreal remake it takes quite a big and dedicated devteam as it's a big game with a lot of varied themes and content, more than your average AAA release.

You could sneakly market it as a new IP of sorts - if you saw my thread about Horizon Zero Dawn on off topic, that game was just a PS4 exclusive and a completely new IP, yet it managed to be very successful (almost everyone thought it was going to be a failure in terms of sales). Plus, Unreal is still rather different from any game released nowadays concept-wise. Single player adventure games are becoming much more than a niche again thanks to the likes of Fallout and the Witcher.

Well, this is something, I wish Epic (or a highly skilled team of modders) would eventually come across this thread and start taking notes. The Titan fight at Dark Arena you proposed is a blast! Though I wouldn't change the action subsong, it's still perfect as it is, perfect for a battle with ferocious beast that's not about spamming Eightball grenades until it croaks while hiding behind an indestructible pillar. I enjoyed Black Mesa remake of Half-Life 1, I'd probably enjoy Unreal HD remake if it would follow your instructions from this very thread. But that's only our dream, I guess, with HL being more popular single-player shooter than Unreal.

As of the Hub system, haven't you considered making areas that are inaccessible at first, but could be opened later with some switch, keycard etc.? From item caches to entirely new place filled with enemies and maybe some side-story to discover with Translator. Now I know, some people might dislike backtracking, but it would enhance the exploration aspect if you ask me.

Preki wrote:Well, this is something, I wish Epic (or a highly skilled team of modders) would eventually come across this thread and start taking notes. The Titan fight at Dark Arena you proposed is a blast! Though I wouldn't change the action subsong, it's still perfect as it is, perfect for a battle with ferocious beast that's not about spamming Eightball grenades until it croaks while hiding behind an indestructible pillar.

I guess it could only be different (more omnipotent sounding) when the Titan does the unexpected power-up, it's definitely a change of pace from the first part of the battle and another sign of the game not being a direct copy-pasta of the original but instead it has full-blown new stuff.

Preki wrote:As of the Hub system, haven't you considered making areas that are inaccessible at first, but could be opened later with some switch, keycard etc.? From item caches to entirely new place filled with enemies and maybe some side-story to discover with Translator. Now I know, some people might dislike backtracking, but it would enhance the exploration aspect if you ask me.

I had this in mind back then but the concept comes very close to an "open-world" one and lately gaming is filled with this left and right. For Unreal I still want it to stick to a linear adventure where "you never look back", plus it's impossible returning in certain previous locations. However the fully made version of the "beta" section I have in mind has two proper optional locations that require backtracking for something special (until before you access Cryox, you can still go back to FHub4).

Some stuff I haven't mentioned yet:

Player feigndeath now sort-of works but only against the dumber enemies and only with precise timing. If you are damaged and feigndeath at the right time (whenever you take damage), an enemy will think of you dead - these enemies being any type of Brutes, Gasbags, Tentacles (from afar only), Slith, Mantas, Flies, Krall and yaeh, that's about it. However, some of these enemies will randomly try to attack you again even if your feigndeath was successful - like some sort of victory dance they do; Brutes for example might just shoot a bunch of rockets on your body, Slith will just puke on you and Gasbags will punch you if you feigndeath close to them, Mantas might decide to stab you once for fun (Giant Mantas will do this always and this means death) and any Krall except the regular ones won't fall for it. Using feigndeath to trick patrolling enemies won't work this time, period, they don't forget what's on the land they walked on (unless you feigndeath far away); Mantas will likely fall for it but when is it ever going to happen? Not even good for multiplayer as you always get to know when you kill somebody (assuming this game will have a Multi - prob won't, that's what UT4 is for). So for the player is an overall useless feature, considering the buffs to crawling, Invisibility and Dampener that help more now when it comes to sneaking through enemies.When a player feigndeaths, it'll either choose one of the available animations randomly or it will use an animation based on the last damage received.

Skaarj still go for the feigndeath trick but only Scouts, Warriors and Assassins do this; higher classes find this too dishonorable or stupid, while for Troopers it doesn't work as the Shield lights die down after a big spark when a Trooper dies, so it's easily noticeable (story goes that their Shields are connected to the vital parts of the Troopers and so the thing cannot be recovered after death). Their feigndeath trick is the exact same, except they'll use now more death animations (depending on the damagetype/damage/momentum they received on last hit). Skaarj will usually stay feigndeath if ignored, going up then to stalk you if you run away; if you stare at them for long they'll suddenly rush on you for a lunge or for another attack - same thing if you decide to shoot them (and they'll have incredible reactions/reflexes when doing so).

Gib system is improved, more realistic. Mind you though that it won't reach bloody mess levels but if a rocket blows up some body you'd see at least something closer to a blood explosion. I already said the ASMD Combo will suck targets like a black hole when they die (like from UT3 onward). Corrosive stuff will just melt non-corrosive-resistant bodies like seen in UT3. Energy stuff (like DP and ASMD) will also disintegrate the target in a spark of colors based on the energy proj's color, chances of it happening are randomized though (mostly always if we're talking about amplified ASMD and powered-up DP bolts); for an example of this disintegration effect, think of how Fallout handles it with laser weapons.Decapitation will mostly follow with a fountain of blood from the body but nothing too exaggerated; the Razorjack blades can cut down other body parts as a fatality hit against almost any regular enemy.

More on the Razorjack; enemies will now try to dodge regular blades - they'll just take a while to notice and then dodge, so it's only slightly harder to hit them. They'll even have less ideas on how to dodge alternate-fire blades except Skaarj Officers, Skaarj Lords and Warlords (introduced much later). But the charged blades that are much more visible will be dodged like any other regular projectile, making them a chore to use against agile opponents like the Skaarj.Decapitation (of both Razorjack and Rifle) now is a legit thing against some new types of enemies; Brutes and Slith now can be decapitated (like in the original game but this time anims are available) while Gasbags has to be hit in the eyes for the extra headshot damage. Decapitation damage works on Warlords this time but not against other bosses. Any other critter aren't affected by decapitation damage.For the Razorjack, headshots grants 120 extra damage (FIXED AMOUNT) over the blades' regular 30 damage (150 damage in total) and over the blades' explosive 100 damage (220 damage in total). For the Rifle, headshots grant 100 extra damage (FIXED AMOUNT) over the bullets' regular 40 damage (140 damage in total).

Next maps probably from tomorrow onward, covering all the three Na Pali Haven locations (with free travels between all of them), with Outpost 3J being the ending map of the first half of the game.